Early breastfeeding cessation: validation of Breastfeeding Assessement Score (BAS) on an Italian validation cohort of women

Introduction The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life because of the numerous benefits of breastfeeding for the mother and the child 2,3. A prognostic approach to identify the mothers at risk of early breastfeeding cessation is needed to provide preventive support to these women. The BAS1, elaborate in Kansas, is a score useful for this approach. Aim of the study To assess the accuracy of the BAS1, in an Italian validation cohort of women. Methods This is a bicentric, prospective study. Italian and healthy mothers who gave birth to a single child from 25th June 2008 to 15th January 2009, with a gestational age of at least 35 weeks, were included. Exclusion criteria, on the convenience sample, were: mothers with a non-Italian background, preterm delivery (<35 weeks) or twin birth.The authors have calculated the BAS on 386 women just before hospital discharge, at least 48 hours post-delivery age, in Mangiagalli and in S. Gerardo hospitals. The primary outcome measured was how many women stopped the breastfeeding, and it was assessed using structured follow-up telephone interviews after 4 weeks. The predictive value of the BAS1 is ok, if it identifies the 80% of the women that stop to breastfeed. This study was carried out from 25th June 2008 to 15th February 2009. Results For a cut point of 8, recommended by the authors of the BAS1, 119 mother-infant pairs were categorized at high risk to early breastfeeding cessation, with a RR 5,24. The BAS has a sensibility of 0.69, a specificity of 0.79, a positive predictive value of 43% and a negative predictive value of 91%. Conclusions / discussion The intrinsic properties of the BAS1 are strong, but the study cannot validate this score because in the studied population, there is a low sensibility versus the authors expectation. Practical relevance Italian midwives need to individualize the mothers at risk of early breastfeeding cessation, for a special support. Research implications This study confirms the necessity to identify a score for the Italian population

Effects of magnetism and doping on the electron-phonon coupling in BaFe2_{2}As2_{2}

We calculate the effect of local magnetic moments on the electron-phonon coupling in BaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}+\delta$ using the density functional perturbation theory. We show that the magnetism enhances the total electron-phonon coupling by $\sim 50$, up to $\lambda \lesssim 0.35$, still not enough to explain the high critical temperature, but strong enough to have a non-negligible effect on superconductivity, for instance, by frustrating the coupling with spin fluctuations and inducing order parameter nodes. The enhancement comes mostly from a renormalization of the electron-phonon matrix elements. We also investigate, in the rigid band approximation, the effect of doping, and find that $\lambda$ versus doping does not mirror the behavior of the density of states; while the latter decreases upon electron doping, the former does not, and even increases slightly.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Large scale quantum simulations: C_60 impacts on a semiconducting surface

We present tight binding molecular dynamics simulations of C_60 collisions on the reconstructed diamond(111) surface, carried out with an O(N) method and with cells containing 1140 atoms. The results of our simulations are in very good agreement with experiments performed under the same impact conditions. Furthermore our calculations provide a detailed characterization of the microscopic processes occuring during the collision, and allow the identification of three impact regimes, as a function of the fullerene incident energy. Finally, the study of the reactivity between the cluster and the surface gives insight into the deposition mechanisms of C_60 on semiconducting substrates

The Raman Fingerprint of Graphene

Graphene is the two-dimensional (2d) building block for carbon allotropes of every other dimensionality. It can be stacked into 3d graphite, rolled into 1d nanotubes, or wrapped into 0d fullerenes. Its recent discovery in free state has finally provided the possibility to study experimentally its electronic and phonon properties. Here we show that graphene's electronic structure is uniquely captured in its Raman spectrum that clearly evolves with increasing number of layers. Raman fingerprints for single-, bi- and few-layer graphene reflect changes in the electronic structure and electron-phonon interactions and allow unambiguous, high-throughput, non-destructive identification of graphene layers, which is critically lacking in this emerging research area

Raman spectroscopy as probe of nanometer-scale strain variations in graphene

Confocal Raman spectroscopy is a versatile, non-invasive investigation tool and a major workhorse for graphene characterization. Here we show that the experimentally observed Raman 2D line width is a measure of nanometer-scale strain variations in graphene. By investigating the relation between the G and 2D line at high magnetic fields we find that the 2D line width contains valuable information on nanometer-scale flatness and lattice deformations of graphene, making it a good quantity for classifying the structural quality of graphene even at zero magnetic field.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Steady state of atoms in a resonant field with elliptical polarization

We present a complete set of analytical and invariant expressions for the steady-state density matrix of atoms in a resonant radiation field with arbitrary intensity and polarization. The field drives the closed dipole transition with arbitrary values of the angular momenta $J_{g}$ and $J_{e}$ of the ground and excited state. The steady-state density matrix is expressed in terms of spherical harmonics of a complex direction given by the field polarization vector. The generalization to the case of broad-band radiation is given. We indicate various applications of these results.Comment: revtex, 26 pages, including 3 eps figures; PRA accepted for publication;v2 three typos are fixe

Effect of stratification on the mixing and reaction yield in a T-shaped micro-mixer

The effect of a small density difference, i.e., lower than 12%, between the two miscible liquid streams fed to a T-shaped junction is investigated experimentally and through numerical simulations. Micron-resolution particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) experiments provided detailed support to the numerical analysis of how stratification influences flow features in different flow regimes. From dimensional analysis, we find that gravitational and inertial fluxes balance each other at a distance L=d/Ri from the confluence along the mixing channel, where d is the hydraulic diameter and Ri is the Richardson number. In general, at distances |y|≪L, the influence of gravity can be neglected, while at |y|≫L the two fluids are fully segregated; in particular, at the confluence, the flow field is the same as the one that we obtain assuming that the two inlet fluids are identical. Thus, in the segregated regime, the contact region separating the two fluids of the inlet streams remains vertical at distances |y|≪L along the mixing channel while it becomes progressively horizontal at |y|≈L. In the vortex regime as well, near the confluence the flow field presents a mirror symmetry, with a very small resulting degree of mixing; however, as we move down the mixing channel, when |y|&gt;L, gravity becomes relevant, leading to a symmetry breaking that promotes convection and enhances mixing. When we further increase the Reynolds number, in the engulfment regime, the degree of mixing becomes much larger due to the mixing induced by the flow instability at the confluence and thus the successive stratification appears to have a small effect on the flow topology, with a degree of mixing that continues to grow very slowly in the mixing channel, similar to what happens in the case of identical inlet fluids. As expected, the onsets of the vortex and engulfment regimes occur at values of the Reynolds number Re that hardly depend on the density difference between the two inlet fluids, provided that Re is defined in terms of the fluid properties of a homogeneous fluid mixture. Finally, the reaction yield along the mixing channel is computed both from numerical and experimental data. In agreement with theoretical predictions, we found that the reaction yield depends on the Damköhler number and the kinetic constant, while it is independent of the density ratio, at least within the range of the investigated conditions

A Rhizogenic Biostimulant Effect on Soil Fertility and Roots Growth of Turfgrass

[EN] The excessive use of chemical fertilizers can lead to severe environmental damages. In recent decades, the application of biostimulants to improve soil composition and stimulate plant growth has contributed significantly to environmental preservation. In this paper, we studied the effect of a rhizogenic biostimulant, obtained from fulvic acids, probiotics, and prebiotics, on the fertility of two types of soils, sandy and sandy loam soils, in which turfgrass was growing. Soil samples from plots treated with biostimulant and controls (untreated plots) were collected. The analyzed parameters from the soil include organic matter, microbial activity, soil chemical composition, catalase, dehydrogenase, and phosphatase enzyme activities. Moreover, root lengths was examined and compared in turfgrass species. The biostimulant application improved microbial activity, organic matter, and enzymatic activity in both types of soils. The soil calcium, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus content increased with the biostimulant application, whereas pH and electrical conductivity decreased. The most relevant improvement was a 77% increase of calcium for sandy loam soil and 38% increase in potassium for sandy soil. Biostimulant application led to a significant increase in turf root length. This increase was greater for sandy soil than in sandy loam soil with an increment of 43% and 34% respectively, compared to control.This research was funded by AREA VERDE-MG projects, by project PDR18-XEROCESPED, funded under the PDR-CM 2014-2020 by the EU (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, EAFRD), Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA) and Comunidad de Madrid regional government through IMIDRA. and by a post-doc grant by Conselleria de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte through "Subvenciones para la contratacion de personal investigador en fase postdoctoral", reference APOSTD/2019/04.Yousfi, S.; Marin, J.; Parra, L.; Lloret, J.; Mauri, PV. (2021). A Rhizogenic Biostimulant Effect on Soil Fertility and Roots Growth of Turfgrass. Agronomy. 11(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11030573S11

Exact results in planar N=1 superconformal Yang-Mills theory

In the \beta-deformed N=4 supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory we study the class of operators O_J = Tr(\Phi_i^J \Phi_k), i\neq k and compute their exact anomalous dimensions for N,J\to\infty. This leads to a prediction for the masses of the corresponding states in the dual string theory sector. We test the exact formula perturbatively up to two loops. The consistency of the perturbative calculation with the exact result indicates that in the planar limit the one--loop condition g^2=h\bar{h} for superconformal invariance is indeed sufficient to insure the {\em exact} superconformal invariance of the theory. We present a direct proof of this point in perturbation theory. The O_J sector of this theory shares many similarities with the BMN sector of the N=4 theory in the large R--charge limit.Comment: LaTex, 14 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor corrections and one reference adde

Instanton test of non-supersymmetric deformations of the AdS_5 x S^5

We consider instanton effects in a non-supersymmetric gauge theory obtained by marginal deformations of the N=4 SYM. This gauge theory is expected to be dual to type IIB string theory on the AdS_5 times deformed-S^5 background. From an instanton calculation in the deformed gauge theory we extract the prediction for the dilaton-axion field \tau in dual string theory. In the limit of small deformations where the supergravity regime is valid, our instanton result reproduces the expression for \tau of the supergravity solution found by Frolov.Comment: 15 page