782 research outputs found
Manipulation of drugs to achieve the required dose is intrinsic to paediatric practice but is not supported by guidelines or evidence
Background: A lack of age-appropriate formulations can make it difficult to administer medicines to children. A manipulation of the dosage form may be required to achieve the required dose. This study aimed to describe medicines that are manipulated to achieve the required dose in paediatric practice.Method: A structured, undisguised observational study and postal survey. The observational study investigated drug manipulations occurring in clinical practice across three sites. The questionnaire, administered to a sample of paediatric nurses throughout the UK, surveyed manipulations conducted and nurses' experiences and views.Results: The observational study identified 310 manipulations, of which 62% involved tablets, 21% were intravenous drugs and 10% were sachets. Of the 54 observed manipulations 40 involved tablets with 65% of the tablets being cut and 30% dispersed to obtain a smaller dose. 188 manipulations were reported by questionnaire respondents, of these 46% involved tablets, 12% were intravenous drugs, and 12% were nebuliser solutions. Manipulations were predominantly, but not exclusively, identified in specialist clinical areas with more highly dependent patients. Questionnaire respondents were concerned about the accuracy of the dose achieved following manipulations and the lack of practice guidance.Conclusion: Manipulations to achieve the required dose occur throughout paediatric in-patient settings. The impact of manipulations on the efficacy of the drugs, the accuracy of the dose and any adverse effects on patients is not known. There is a need to develop evidence-based guidance for manipulations of medicines in children
HAZMAT. V. The Ultraviolet and X-ray Evolution of K Stars
Knowing the high-energy radiation environment of a star over a planet's
formation and evolutionary period is critical in determining if that planet is
potentially habitable and if any biosignatures could be detected, as UV
radiation can severely change or destroy a planet's atmosphere. Current efforts
for finding a potentially habitable planet are focused on M stars, yet K stars
may offer more habitable conditions due to decreased stellar activity and more
distant and wider habitable zones (HZ). While M star activity evolution has
been observed photometrically and spectroscopically, there has been no
dedicated investigation of K-star UV evolution. We present the first
comprehensive study of the near-UV, far-UV, and X-ray evolution of K stars. We
used members of young moving groups and clusters ranging in age from 10 - 625
Myr combined with field stars and their archived GALEX UV and ROSAT X-ray data
to determine how the UV and X-ray radiation evolve. We find that the UV and
X-ray flux incident on a HZ planet is 5 - 50 times lower than that of HZ
planets around early-M stars and 50 - 1000 times lower than those around late-M
stars, due to both an intrinsic decrease in K dwarf stellar activity occurring
earlier than for M dwarfs and the more distant location of the K dwarf HZ.Comment: 27 pages, 19 figure
elliptic Gaudin model with open boundaries
The elliptic Gaudin model with integrable boundaries specified by
generic non-diagonal K-matrices with free boundary parameters is studied.
The commuting families of Gaudin operators are diagonalized by the algebraic
Bethe ansatz method. The eigenvalues and the corresponding Bethe ansatz
equations are obtained.Comment: 21 pages, Latex fil
Mapping social reward and punishment processing in the human brain:A voxel-based meta-analysis of neuroimaging findings using the social incentive delay task
Social rewards or punishments motivate human learning and behaviour, and alterations in the brain circuits involved in the processing of these stimuli have been linked with several neuropsychiatric disorders. However, questions still remain about the exact neural substrates implicated in social reward and punishment processing. Here, we conducted four Anisotropic Effect Size Signed Differential Mapping voxel-based meta-analyses of fMRI studies investigating the neural correlates of the anticipation and receipt of social rewards and punishments using the Social Incentive Delay task. We found that the anticipation of both social rewards and social punishment avoidance recruits a wide network of areas including the basal ganglia, the midbrain, the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, the supplementary motor area, the anterior insula, the occipital gyrus and other frontal, temporal, parietal and cerebellar regions not captured in previous coordinate-based meta-analysis. We identified decreases in the BOLD signal during the anticipation of both social reward and punishment avoidance in regions of the default-mode network that were missed in individual studies likely due to a lack of power. Receipt of social rewards engaged a robust network of brain regions including the ventromedial frontal and orbitofrontal cortices, the anterior cingulate cortex, the amygdala, the hippocampus, the occipital cortex and the brainstem, but not the basal ganglia. Receipt of social punishments increased the BOLD signal in the orbitofrontal cortex, superior and inferior frontal gyri, lateral occipital cortex and the insula. In contrast to the receipt of social rewards, we also observed a decrease in the BOLD signal in the basal ganglia in response to the receipt of social punishments. Our results provide a better understanding of the brain circuitry involved in the processing of social rewards and punishment. Furthermore, they can inform hypotheses regarding brain areas where disruption in activity may be associated with dysfunctional social incentive processing during diseas
Current Population Statistics Do Not Favor Photoevaporation over Core-Powered Mass Loss as the Dominant Cause of the Exoplanet Radius Gap
We search for evidence of the cause of the exoplanet radius gap, i.e. the
dearth of planets with radii near . If the cause was
photoevaporation, the radius gap should trend with proxies for the early-life
high-energy emission of planet-hosting stars. If, alternatively, the cause was
core-powered mass loss, no such trends should exist. Critically, spurious
trends between the radius gap and stellar properties arise from an underlying
correlation with instellation. After accounting for this underlying
correlation, we find no trends remain between the radius gap and stellar mass
or present-day stellar activity as measured by near-UV emission. We dismiss the
nondetection of a radius gap trend with near-UV emission because present-day
near-UV emission is unlikely to trace early-life high-energy emission, but we
provide a catalog of GALEX near-UV and far-UV emission measurements for general
use. We interpret the nondetection of a radius gap trend with stellar mass by
simulating photoevaporation with mass-dependent evolution of stellar
high-energy emission. The simulation produces an undetectable trend between the
radius gap and stellar mass under realistic sources of error. We conclude that
no evidence, from this analysis or others in the literature, currently exists
that clearly favors either photoevaporation or core powered mass loss as the
primary cause of the exoplanet radius gap. However, repeating this analysis
once the body of well-characterized planets has roughly doubled
could confirm or rule out photoevaporation.Comment: 27 pages, 32 figures, accepted to Ap
R-matrix Quantization of the Elliptic Ruijsenaars--Schneider model
It is shown that the classical L-operator algebra of the elliptic
Ruijsenaars-Schneider model can be realized as a subalgebra of the algebra of
functions on the cotangent bundle over the centrally extended current group in
two dimensions. It is governed by two dynamical r and -matrices
satisfying a closed system of equations. The corresponding quantum R and
-matrices are found as solutions to quantum analogs of these
equations. We present the quantum L-operator algebra and show that the system
of equations on R and arises as the compatibility condition for
this algebra. It turns out that the R-matrix is twist-equivalent to the Felder
elliptic R^F-matrix with playing the role of the twist. The
simplest representation of the quantum L-operator algebra corresponding to the
elliptic Ruijsenaars-Schneider model is obtained. The connection of the quantum
L-operator algebra to the fundamental relation RLL=LLR with Belavin's elliptic
R matrix is established. As a byproduct of our construction, we find a new
N-parameter elliptic solution to the classical Yang-Baxter equation.Comment: latex, 29 pages, some misprints are corrected and the meromorphic
version of the quantum L-operator algebra is discusse
Classes of fast and specific search mechanisms for proteins on DNA
Problems of search and recognition appear over different scales in biological
systems. In this review we focus on the challenges posed by interactions
between proteins, in particular transcription factors, and DNA and possible
mechanisms which allow for a fast and selective target location. Initially we
argue that DNA-binding proteins can be classified, broadly, into three distinct
classes which we illustrate using experimental data. Each class calls for a
different search process and we discuss the possible application of different
search mechanisms proposed over the years to each class. The main thrust of
this review is a new mechanism which is based on barrier discrimination. We
introduce the model and analyze in detail its consequences. It is shown that
this mechanism applies to all classes of transcription factors and can lead to
a fast and specific search. Moreover, it is shown that the mechanism has
interesting transient features which allow for stability at the target despite
rapid binding and unbinding of the transcription factor from the target.Comment: 65 pages, 23 figure
Arabs and Atheism: Religious Discussions in the Arab Twittersphere
Most previous research on online discussions of atheism has focused on
atheism within a Christian context. In contrast, discussions about atheism in
the Arab world and from Islamic background are relatively poorly studied. An
added complication is that open atheism is against the law in some Arab
countries, which may further restrict atheist activity on social media. In this
work, we explore atheistic discussion in the Arab Twittersphere. We identify
four relevant categories of Twitter users according to the content they post:
atheistic, theistic, tanweeri (religious renewal), and other. We characterise
the typical content posted by these four sets of users and their social
networks, paying particular attention to the topics discussed and the
interaction among them. Our findings have implication for the study of
religious and spiritual discourse on social media and provide a better
cross-cultural understanding of relevant aspects.Comment: Accepted as a full paper at Socinfo 2019. Please cite the Socinfo
version. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Social
Informatics (SocInfo 2019
HAZMAT. VIII. A Spectroscopic Analysis of the Ultraviolet Evolution of K Stars: Additional Evidence for K Dwarf Rotational Stalling in the First Gigayear
Efforts to discover and characterize habitable zone planets have primarily
focused on Sun-like stars and M dwarfs. K stars, however, provide an appealing
compromise between these two alternatives that has been relatively unexplored.
Understanding the ultraviolet (UV) environment around such stars is critical to
our understanding of their planets, as the UV can drastically alter the
photochemistry of a planet's atmosphere. Here we present near-UV and far-UV
\textit{Hubble Space Telescope}'s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph observations of
39 K stars at three distinct ages: 40 Myr, 650 Myr, and 5 Gyr. We find
that the K star (0.6 -- 0.8 M) UV flux remains constant beyond 650
Myr before falling off by an order of magnitude by field age. This is distinct
from early M stars (0.3 -- 0.6 M), which begin to decline after only
a few hundred Myr. However, the rotation-UV activity relation for K stars is
nearly identical to that of early M stars. These results may be a consequence
of the spin-down stalling effect recently reported for K dwarfs, in which the
spin-down of K stars halts for over a Gyr when their rotation periods reach
10 d, rather than the continuous spin down that G stars experience.
These results imply that exoplanets orbiting K dwarfs may experience a stronger
UV environment than thought, weakening the case for K stars as hosts of
potential "super-habitable" planets.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure
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