The Cepheid Period-Luminosity Relation at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths: I. First-Epoch LMC Data

We present the first mid-infrared Period-Luminosity (PL) relations for Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) Cepheids. Single-epoch observations of 70 Cepheids were extracted from Spitzer IRAC observations at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns, serendipitously obtained during the SAGE (Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution) imaging survey of the LMC. All four mid-infrared PL relations have nearly identical slopes over the period range 6 - 88 days, with a small scatter of only +/-0.16 mag independent of period for all four of these wavelengths. We emphasize that differential reddening is not contributing significantly to the observed scatter, given the nearly two orders of magnitude reduced sensitivity of the mid-IR to extinction compared to the optical. Future observations, filling in the light curves for these Cepheids, should noticeably reduce the residual scatter. These attributes alone suggest that mid-infrared PL relations will provide a practical means of significantly improving the accuracy of Cepheid distances to nearby galaxies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Differential gene expression in multiple neurological, inflammatory and connective tissue pathways in a spontaneous model of human small vessel stroke

Aims: Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) causes a fifth of all strokes plus diffuse brain damage leading to cognitive decline, physical disabilities and dementia. The aetiology and pathogenesis of SVD are unknown, but largely attributed to hypertension or microatheroma. Methods: We used the spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rat (SHRSP), the closest spontaneous experimental model of human SVD, and age-matched control rats kept under identical, non-salt-loaded conditions, to perform a blinded analysis of mRNA microarray, qRT-PCRand pathway analysis in two brain regions (frontal and midcoronal) commonly affected by SVD in the SHRSP at age five, 16 and 21 weeks. Results: We found gene expression abnormalities, with fold changes ranging from 2.5 to 59 for the 10 most differentially expressed genes, related to endothelial tight junctions (reduced), nitric oxide bioavailability (reduced), myelination (impaired), glial and microglial activity (increased), matrix proteins (impaired), vascular reactivity (impaired) and albumin (reduced), consistent with protein expression defects in the same rats. All were present at age 5 weeks thus pre-dating blood pressure elevation. ‘Neurological’ and ‘inflammatory’ pathways were more affected than ‘vascular’ functional pathways. Conclusions: This set of defects, although individually modest, when acting in combination could explain the SHRSP's susceptibility to microvascular and brain injury, compared with control rats. Similar combined, individually modest, but multiple neurovascular unit defects, could explain susceptibility to spontaneous human SVD

What matters to me! User conceptions of value in specialist cancer care

This paper is the first to apply the services marketing framework of service-dominant logic (S-D logic) to enhance understanding of patient conceptualizations of value in the context of cancer health services. Using data from a case study, the findings reveal that ‘value’ is a temporal, experiential, and complex concept. Three dominant themes are identified as contributing to value creation; access to resources, quality of interactions, and resource use. Although these findings show a broad degree of support for the S-D logic framework, distinctive variations emerge from this application in a health-care context

Value co-creation through patient engagement in health care: a micro-level approach and research agenda

Patient engagement has gained increasing prominence within academic literatures and policy discourse. With limited developments in practice, most extant academic contributions are conceptual, with initiatives in the National Health Service (NHS) concentrating at macro- rather than at micro-level. This may be one reason why the issue of ‘value co-creation’ has received limited attention within academic discussions of patient engagement or policy pronouncements. Drawing on emerging ideas in the services marketing and public management literatures, this article offers the first elucidation of the importance of studying ‘value co-creation’ as a basis for further empirical analysis of patient engagement in micro-level encounters

Impact of bariatric surgery on hypertensive disorders in pregnancy: retrospective analysis of insurance claims data

Objective To determine whether women who had a delivery after bariatric surgery have lower rates of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy compared with women who had a delivery before bariatric surgery

Patient/Family Education for Newly Diagnosed Pediatric Oncology Patients

There is a paucity of data to support evidence-based practices in the provision of patient/family education in the context of a new childhood cancer diagnosis. Since the majority of children with cancer are treated on pediatric oncology clinical trials, lack of effective patient/family education has the potential to negatively affect both patient and clinical trial outcomes. The Children’s Oncology Group Nursing Discipline convened an interprofessional expert panel from within and beyond pediatric oncology to review available and emerging evidence and develop expert consensus recommendations regarding harmonization of patient/family education practices for newly diagnosed pediatric oncology patients across institutions. Five broad principles, with associated recommendations, were identified by the panel, including recognition that (1) in pediatric oncology, patient/family education is family-centered; (2) a diagnosis of childhood cancer is overwhelming and the family needs time to process the diagnosis and develop a plan for managing ongoing life demands before they can successfully learn to care for the child; (3) patient/family education should be an interprofessional endeavor with 3 key areas of focus: (a) diagnosis/treatment, (b) psychosocial coping, and (c) care of the child; (4) patient/family education should occur across the continuum of care; and (5) a supportive environment is necessary to optimize learning. Dissemination and implementation of these recommendations will set the stage for future studies that aim to develop evidence to inform best practices, and ultimately to establish the standard of care for effective patient/family education in pediatric oncology

Radio source-component association for the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey with region-based convolutional neural networks

Large scale structure and cosmolog

Assessing the Preservation Condition of Large and Heterogeneous Electronic Records Collections with Visualization

As collections become larger in size, more complex in structure and increasingly diverse in composition, new approaches are needed to help curators assess digital files and make decisions about their long-term preservation. We present research on the use of interactive visualization to analyze file characterization information for the purpose of assessing the preservation condition of a vast collection of complex electronic records. The case study collection contains over 1,000,000 files of diverse formats arranged in varied record structures and record groups. The visualization application uses tree maps and a relational database management system (RDBMS) to represent the collection's arrangement and to show available characterization information at different levels of aggregation, classification and abstraction. Through this visualization interface curators can interact dynamically with the collections' characterization information to discover trends, as well as compare and contrast various file characteristics across the collection. Curators may select and weight the variables that they want to analyze. They can pursue analysis workflows that go from a high-level overview of the collection's preservation condition based on file format risks, to obtaining more detailed results about the condition of record groups and individual records. While there are various digital preservation planning tools available, to our knowledge none have been designed specifically to visually present assessment information across vast and complex collections. We present research to address the need for such a tool

A description of interventions promoting healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away, or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets in England: a systematic mapping and evidence synthesis

Abstract Background Ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by food outlets are often more energy dense and nutrient poor compared with meals prepared at home, making them a reasonable target for public health intervention. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to systematically identify and describe interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away, or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets in England. Methods A systematic search and sift of the literature, followed by evidence mapping of relevant interventions, was conducted. Food outlets were included if they were located in England, were openly accessible to the public and, as their main business, sold ready-to-eat meals. Academic databases and grey literature were searched. Also, local authorities in England, topic experts, and key health professionals and workers were contacted. Two tiers of evidence synthesis took place: type, content and delivery of each intervention were summarised (Tier 1) and for those interventions that had been evaluated, a narrative synthesis was conducted (Tier 2). Results A total of 75 interventions were identified, the most popular being awards. Businesses were more likely to engage with cost neutral interventions which offered imperceptible changes to price, palatability and portion size. Few interventions involved working upstream with suppliers of food, the generation of customer demand, the exploration of competition effects, and/or reducing portion sizes. Evaluations of interventions were generally limited in scope and of low methodological quality, and many were simple assessments of acceptability. Conclusions Many interventions promoting healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away, or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets in England are taking place; award-type interventions are the most common. Proprietors of food outlets in England that, as their main business, sell ready-to-eat meals, can be engaged in implementing interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat-food. These proprietors are generally positive about such interventions, particularly when they are cost neutral and use a health by stealth approach