The population impact of common mental disorders and long-term physical conditions on disability and hospital admission

Background: Long-term physical conditions (LTCs) consume the largest share of healthcare budgets. Although common mental disorders (CMDs) and LTCs often co-occur, the potential impact of improved mental health treatment on severe disability and hospital admissions for physical health problems remains unknown. Method: A cross-sectional study of 7403 adults aged 16–95 years living in private households in England was performed. LTCs were ascertained by prompted self-report. CMDs were ascertained by structured clinical interview. Disability was assessed using questions about problems with activities of daily living. Population impact and potential preventive gain were estimated using population-attributable fraction (PAF), and conservative estimates were obtained using ‘treated non-cases’ as the reference group. Results: Of the respondents, 20.7% reported at least one LTC. The prevalence of CMDs increased with the number of LTCs, but over two-thirds (71.2%) of CMD cases in people with LTCs were untreated. Statistically significant PAFs were found for CMDs and recent hospital admission [13.5%, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 6.6–20.0] and severe disability (31.3%, 95% CI 27.1–35.2) after adjusting for LTCs and other confounders. Only the latter remained significant when using the most conservative estimate of PAF (21.8%, 95% CI 14.0–28.9), and this was reduced only slightly when considering only participants with LTCs (18.5%, 95% CI 7.9–27.9). Conclusions: Better treatments for CMDs in people with LTCs could achieve almost the same population health gain in terms of reducing severe disability as those targeted at the entire population. Interventions to reduce the prevalence of CMDs among people with LTCs should be part of routine medical care

Jet propulsion without inertia

A body immersed in a highly viscous fluid can locomote by drawing in and expelling fluid through pores at its surface. We consider this mechanism of jet propulsion without inertia in the case of spheroidal bodies, and derive both the swimming velocity and the hydrodynamic efficiency. Elementary examples are presented, and exact axisymmetric solutions for spherical, prolate spheroidal, and oblate spheroidal body shapes are provided. In each case, entirely and partially porous (i.e. jetting) surfaces are considered, and the optimal jetting flow profiles at the surface for maximizing the hydrodynamic efficiency are determined computationally. The maximal efficiency which may be achieved by a sphere using such jet propulsion is 12.5%, a significant improvement upon traditional flagella-based means of locomotion at zero Reynolds number. Unlike other swimming mechanisms which rely on the presentation of a small cross section in the direction of motion, the efficiency of a jetting body at low Reynolds number increases as the body becomes more oblate, and limits to approximately 162% in the case of a flat plate swimming along its axis of symmetry. Our results are discussed in the light of slime extrusion mechanisms occurring in many cyanobacteria

A cytological study of four Sicilian Serapias (Orchidaceae)

Cytological analysis of four Serapias L. (Orchidaceae), of which two are Sicilian endemics, is carried out. In particular, the endemic S. intermedia subsp. hyblaea shows a triploid chromosome complement with 2n = 3x = 54, representing natural nothotaxa arising from a hybridization process between supposed parental S. vomeracea (2n = 2x = 36) and Serapias lingua (2n = 4x = 72). For each of them the C-heterochromatin distribution, using Giemsa C-banding and karyotypes, was examined. The other endemic taxon (S. orientalis subsp. siciliensis) is characterized by a diploid chromosome number 2n = 2x = 36, of which the C-heterochromatin distribution is examined as well. The taxonomical relationships among these taxa are discussed in relation to the literature data

The “Eyeballing” technique : an emerging and alerting trend of alcohol misuse

Alternative methods of alcohol consumption have recently emerged among adolescents and young adults, including the alcohol “eyeballing”, which consist in the direct pouring of alcoholic substances on the ocular surface epithelium. In a context of drug and behavioural addictions change, “eyeballing” can be seen as one of the latest and potentially highly risky new trends. We aimed to analyze the existing medical literature as well as online material on this emerging trend of alcohol misusePeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Validation of CATHARE TH-SYS Code Against Experimental Reflood Tests

This paper presents results of a code validation activity that has been carried out at the University of Pisa within the EC-funded NURESAFE project, aimed to assess CATHARE2 v2.5_3 Mod3.1 code capabilities to simulate scenarios featuring reflood conditions. For such purpose, experimental data available from FEBA and ACHILLES separate-effect test facilities was used. In order to set-up a reference calculation model, rigorous sensitivity studies have been performed for every of the selected experimental test facilities. Quantitative analysis of the results has been carried out for all of the considered tests, using the Fast Fourier Transform Based Method (FFTBM) for accuracy quantification of code predictions. The calculations of experimental tests of ACHILLES facility have been performed with CATHARE2 v2.5_3 mod 3.1 using both 1-D and 3-D models. The no-regression of the results predicted by such code was successfully checked through qualitative and quantitative comparison with results obtained by the one of previous code versions: CATHARE2 v2.5_2 mod 7.1. An assessment of the capabilities of the new CATHARE3 v1.3.13 code to simulate reflood phenomena using both two- and three-field 1-D models has then been carried out, based on the same ACHILLES tests. Simulations by CATHARE3 (three-field) exhibit faster quenching than CATHARE2, mainly due to the presence of the droplet field enhancing the heat exchange from the fuel rod simulators. The performed qualitative analysis has shown the ability of CATHARE2 code to capture the main features of the reflood phenomena using appropriate modeling. Nonetheless, the quantitative analysis shows a systematic underprediction of the PCT and faster quenching in the majority of tests

HINDERED DECAY : QUANTUM ZENO EFFECT THROUGH ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD DOMINATION

The lifetime of an unstable atom can be extended by watching it closely, i.e., illuminating it with an intense electromagnetic field of appropriate frequency. This is an example of ``dominated evolution'' and is closely related to the so-called ``quantum Zeno effect.'' For a metastable atom bathed in a laser beam at the frequency of another of its transitions, we obtain an expression for the modified lifetime as a function of beam intensity. This provides an example of the quantum Zeno effect on a truly decaying system, and also should be useful for probing short distance features of atomic wave functions