715 research outputs found
”I was meant to be able to do this”: women’s experiences of breastfeeding. A phenomenological study
Introduction. There is strong evidence demonstrating that human breastmilk provides complete nutrition for human
infants. While the rate of initiation of breastfeeding in the UK has increased steadily over the last 25 years, rates of exclusive
breastfeeding in the early weeks and months over the same time period have shown only marginal increases.
Method. An interpretive phenomenological approach informed by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger was adopted. The aim
was to understand women’s experience of breastfeeding. Women were recruited from one city in the East Midlands in the UK,
where the prevalence of breastfeeding is decreasing. Potential participants were recruited via health visitors at the primary birth
visit. Ethical approval was received from the university and NHS research ethics committees. Data were collected between three
and six months after the birth of their youngest child and analysis was guided by interpretive phenomenological principles.
Findings. The women were found to be ill-prepared for the realities of breastfeeding and, for most women, the shock of this
experience was overwhelming. In particular there was a lack of understanding and preparation for common problems and a
lack of awareness of newborn behaviour. Misunderstandings of newborn behaviour resulted in the women blaming infantfeeding
behaviours, such as crying, wakeful states and cluster feeding, on the specific method of infant-feeding. Frequent
feeding cues were overwhelming and the women felt overawed by the sense of responsibility. It also led them to question their
ability to provide an adequate milk supply.
Discussion. The extent to which inadequate preparation for breastfeeding had a negative impact on the breastfeeding
experiences of women in this study was a surprise. Antenatal education should focus more on preparing women for the
realities. Education and support for breastfeeding women need to encompass infant-feeding cues and infant behaviours
Extended scaling relations for planar lattice models
It is widely believed that the critical properties of several planar lattice
models, like the Eight Vertex or the Ashkin-Teller models, are well described
by an effective Quantum Field Theory obtained as formal scaling limit. On the
basis of this assumption several extended scaling relations among their indices
were conjectured. We prove the validity of some of them, among which the ones
by Kadanoff, [K], and by Luther and Peschel, [LP].Comment: 32 pages, 7 fi
Increased risk of lower limb osteoarthritis among former professional soccer (football) players
Background: Soccer is a high-speed contact sport with risk of injury. Despite long-standing concern, evidence to date remains inconsistent as to the association between playing professional-level soccer and lifelong musculoskeletal consequences.
Aims: The objectives were to assess risk of osteoarthritis in former professional soccer players compared to matched general population controls, and subsequently assess associated musculoskeletal disorders which may contribute to, or result from, osteoarthritis—specifically meniscal injury and joint replacement.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using national electronic health records (EHRs) on a cohort of 7676 former professional soccer players aged 40 or over at recruitment, matched on year of birth, sex (all male) and socio-economic status with 23 028 general population controls. Outcomes of interest were obtained by utilizing individual-level record linkage to EHRs from general hospital inpatient and day-case admissions. Results: Compared to controls, former soccer players showed a greater risk of hospital admission for osteoarthritis (hazard ratio [HR] 3.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.80–3.25; P < 0.001). This increased risk appeared age dependant, normalizing over age 80 years and reflective of increased risk of lower limb osteoarthritis. Further, risk of hospital admissions for meniscal injury (HR 2.73; 95% CI 2.42–3.08; P &lt; 0.001) and joint replacement (HR 2.82; 95% CI 2.23–3.57; P &lt; 0.001) were greater among former soccer players. Conclusions: We report an increased risk of lower limb osteoarthritis in former soccer players when compared with matched population controls. The results of this research add data in support of lower limb osteoarthritis among former soccer players representing a potential industrial injury
Search For Trapped Antihydrogen
We present the results of an experiment to search for trapped antihydrogen
atoms with the ALPHA antihydrogen trap at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator.
Sensitive diagnostics of the temperatures, sizes, and densities of the trapped
antiproton and positron plasmas have been developed, which in turn permitted
development of techniques to precisely and reproducibly control the initial
experimental parameters. The use of a position-sensitive annihilation vertex
detector, together with the capability of controllably quenching the
superconducting magnetic minimum trap, enabled us to carry out a
high-sensitivity and low-background search for trapped synthesised antihydrogen
atoms. We aim to identify the annihilations of antihydrogen atoms held for at
least 130 ms in the trap before being released over ~30 ms. After a three-week
experimental run in 2009 involving mixing of 10^7 antiprotons with 1.3 10^9
positrons to produce 6 10^5 antihydrogen atoms, we have identified six
antiproton annihilation events that are consistent with the release of trapped
antihydrogen. The cosmic ray background, estimated to contribute 0.14 counts,
is incompatible with this observation at a significance of 5.6 sigma. Extensive
simulations predict that an alternative source of annihilations, the escape of
mirror-trapped antiprotons, is highly unlikely, though this possibility has not
yet been ruled out experimentally.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
Industry concentration and strategic trade policy in successive oligopoly
We study a policy game between exporting and importing countries in vertically linked industries. In a successive international Cournot oligopoly, we analyse incentives for using tax instruments strategically to shift rents vertically, between exporting and importing countries, and horizontally, between exporting countries. We show that the equilibrium outcome depends crucially on the relative degree of competitiveness in the upstream and downstream parts of the industry. With respect to national welfare, a more competitive upstream industry may benefit an exporting (upstream) country and harm an importing (downstream) country. On the other hand, a more competitive downstream industry may harm exporting countries.Financial support from the Norwegian Research Council, through the PETROPOL research programme, is gratefully acknowledged. The paper has been greatly improved by the suggestions of two anonymous referees. We also thank Hisashi Hokari and Frode Meland for valuable comments and suggestions
Genetic signatures in choline and 1-carbon metabolism are associated with the severity of hepatic steatosis
Choline metabolism is important for very low-density lipoprotein secretion, making this nutritional pathway an important contributor to hepatic lipid balance. The purpose of this study was to assess whether the cumulative effects of multiple single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across genes of choline/ 1-carbon metabolism and functionally related pathways increase susceptibility to developing hepatic steatosis. In biopsy-characterized cases of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and controls, we assessed 260 SNPs across 21 genes in choline/1-carbon metabolism. When SNPs were examined individually, using logistic regression, we only identified a single SNP (PNPLA3 rs738409) that was significantly associated with severity of hepatic steatosis after adjusting for confounders and multiple comparisons (P=0.02). However, when groupings of SNPs in similar metabolic pathways were defined using unsupervised hierarchical clustering, we identified groups of subjects with shared SNP signatures that were significantly correlated with steatosis burden (P=0.0002). The lowest and highest steatosis clusters could also be differentiated by ethnicity. However, unique SNP patterns defined steatosis burden irrespective of ethnicity. Our results suggest that analysis of SNP patterns in genes of choline/1-carbon metabolism may be useful for prediction of severity of steatosis in specific subsets of people, and the metabolic inefficiencies caused by these SNPs should be examined further
Study of the B^0 Semileptonic Decay Spectrum at the Upsilon(4S) Resonance
We have made a first measurement of the lepton momentum spectrum in a sample
of events enriched in neutral B's through a partial reconstruction of B0 -->
D*- l+ nu. This spectrum, measured with 2.38 fb**-1 of data collected at the
Upsilon(4S) resonance by the CLEO II detector, is compared directly to the
inclusive lepton spectrum from all Upsilon(4S) events in the same data set.
These two spectra are consistent with having the same shape above 1.5 GeV/c.
From the two spectra and two other CLEO measurements, we obtain the B0 and B+
semileptonic branching fractions, b0 and b+, their ratio, and the production
ratio f+-/f00 of B+ and B0 pairs at the Upsilon(4S). We report b+/b0=0.950
(+0.117-0.080) +- 0.091, b0 = (10.78 +- 0.60 +- 0.69)%, and b+ = (10.25 +- 0.57
+- 0.65)%. b+/b0 is equivalent to the ratio of charged to neutral B lifetimes,
tau+/tau0.Comment: 14 page, postscript file also available at
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Radiative Decay Modes of the Meson
Using data recorded by the CLEO-II detector at CESR we have searched for four
radiative decay modes of the meson: ,
, , and . We
obtain 90% CL upper limits on the branching ratios of these modes of , , and
respectively.Comment: 15 page postscript file, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Measurement of the Mass Splittings between the States
We present new measurements of photon energies and branching fractions for
the radiative transitions: Upsilon(2S)->gamma+chi_b(J=0,1,2). The masses of the
chi_b states are determined from the measured radiative photon energies. The
ratio of mass splittings between the chi_b substates,
r==(M[J=2]-M[J=1])/(M[J=1]-M[J=0]) with M the chi_b mass, provides information
on the nature of the bbbar confining potential. We find
r(1P)=0.54+/-0.02+/-0.02. This value is in conflict with the previous world
average, but more consistent with the theoretical expectation that r(1P)<r(2P);
i.e., that this mass splittings ratio is smaller for the chi_b(1P) triplet than
for the chi_b(2P) triplet.Comment: 11 page postscript file, postscript file also available through
http://w4.lns.cornell.edu/public/CLN
Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS
The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at
the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS
detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4
fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to
Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks
corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new
structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is
also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes.
This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table,
corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter
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