Ephedrine requirements are reduced during spinal anaesthesia for caesarean section in preeclampsia

Part of the Portfolio Thesis by Geoffrey H. Sharwood-Smith: The inferior vena caval compression theory of hypotension in obstetric spinal anaesthesia: studies in normal and preeclamptic pregnancy, a literature review and revision of fundamental concepts, available at http://hdl.handle.net/10023/1815Background: Despite controversy over the haemodynamically safest blockade for caesarean section in women with severe preeclampsia, an increasing number of anaesthetists now opt for spinal anaesthesia. In a previous study we found that spinal compared to epidural anaesthesia offered an equally safe but more effective option for these patients. The current study was designed to compare the hypotension induced by spinal anaesthesia, as measured by ephedrine requirement, between 20 normotensive and 20 severely preeclamptic but haemodynamically stabilised women. Method: Standardised spinal anaesthesia was instituted and ephedrine was given in boluses of 6 mg if the systolic pressure fell >20% from the baseline, or if the patient exhibited symptoms of hypotension. Results: The mean ephedrine requirement of the normotensive group (27.9 ± 11.6 mg) was significantly greater (P < 0.01) than that of the preeclamptic group (16.4 ± 15.0 mg). Conclusion: This suggests that the hypotension induced by spinal anaesthesia in women with severe but haemodynamically stabilised preeclampsia, is less than that of normotensive patients.Publisher PD

The Zero-Bin and Mode Factorization in Quantum Field Theory

We study a Lagrangian formalism that avoids double counting in effective field theories where distinct fields are used to describe different infrared momentum regions for the same particle. The formalism leads to extra subtractions in certain diagrams and to a new way of thinking about factorization of modes in quantum field theory. In non-relativistic field theories, the subtractions remove unphysical pinch singularities in box type diagrams, and give a derivation of the known pull-up mechanism between soft and ultrasoft fields which is required by the renormalization group evolution. In a field theory for energetic particles, the soft-collinear effective theory (SCET), the subtractions allow the theory to be defined with different infrared and ultraviolet regulators, remove double counting between soft, ultrasoft, and collinear modes, and give results which reproduce the infrared divergences of the full theory. Our analysis shows that convolution divergences in factorization formul\ae occur due to an overlap of momentum regions. We propose a method that avoids this double counting, which helps to resolve a long standing puzzle with singularities in collinear factorization in QCD. The analysis gives evidence for a factorization in rapidity space in exclusive decays.Comment: 92 pages, v4- Journal version. Some improvements to language in sections I, IIA, VI

Developments in the Use of Plantain (\u3cem\u3ePlantago lanceolata\u3c/em\u3e) Cultivars in New Zealand Pastures

The use of pasture herbs, such as chicory, is commonplace in New Zealand in recent years. This has stimulated interest in other herb species such as plantain (Plantago lanceolata) that often occurs as a ubiquitous weed in temperate pastures throughout the world. In the last decade 2 improved commercial cultivars, Grasslands Lancelot (Rumball et al., 1997) and the erect, winter active Ceres Tonic (Stewart, 1996), have been bred in New Zealand for use in pastures. These cultivars have useful agronomic features that make them valuable for grazing. They are productive in mixtures, palatable to grazing animals, and tolerate a wide range of soils and dryland conditions (Stewart, 1996; Stewart & Charlton, 2003)

Stabilising the Blue Phases

We present an investigation of the phase diagram of cholesteric liquid crystals within the framework of Landau - de Gennes theory. The free energy is modified to incorporate all three Frank elastic constants and to allow for a temperature dependent pitch in the cholesteric phase. It is found that the region of stability of the cubic blue phases depends significantly on the value of the elastic constants, being reduced when the bend elastic constant is larger than splay and when twist is smaller than the other two. Most dramatically we find a large increase in the region of stability of blue phase I, and a qualitative change in the phase diagram, in a system where the cholesteric phase displays helix inversion.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Long Term Potentiation (LTP) and Long Term Depression (LTD) Cause Differential Spatial Redistribution of the Synaptic Vesicle Protein Synaptophysin in the Middle Molecular Layer of the Dentate Gyrus in Rat Hippocampus

The presynaptic modifications that accompany long-term changes in synaptic plasticity are still not fully understood. Synaptophysin is a major synaptic vesicle protein involved in neurotransmitter release. We have used quantitative electron microscopy to study synaptophysin (Syn) immunolabelling in the hippocampus of adult rats 24h after induction in vivo of long term potentiation (LTP), and long term depression (LTD). Electrodes were implanted chronically in hippocampus with stimulation at either the medial (MPP) or lateral perforant path (LPP). 24h following induction of LTP or LTD rats were rapidly perfusion fixed and hippocampal tissue processed to electron microscopy via freeze substitution method. Anti-synaptophysin post-embedding immunolabelling was performed and tissue was imaged in the middle molecular layer (MML) of the dentate gyrus. There was a significant decrease in number of Syn labelled vesicles per unit area of bouton after LTP, but not LTD. An analysis of the spatial distribution of Syn labelled synaptic vesicles showed an increase in nearest neighbour distances, more so in the LTP than the LTD group, which is consistent with the overall decrease of Syn after LTP. These data are in agreement with the suggestion that Syn is involved in clathrin-dependent and “kiss and run” endocytosis which occurs perisynaptically. Thus, an increase in release of neurotransmitter and in consequence endocytosis would be consistent with an increased active zone distance for vesicles containing Syn

A Decade Of Starspot Activity On The Eclipsing Short-Period RS Canum Venaticorum Star WY Cancri: 1988-1997

We present optical photometry of the short-period eclipsing RS CVn system WY Cancri for the years 1988–1997. For each light curve, we model the distortion waves in order to study the behavior of starspots in this system. After removing the spot effects f

The Measure Problem in Cosmology

The Hamiltonian structure of general relativity provides a natural canonical measure on the space of all classical universes, i.e., the multiverse. We review this construction and show how one can visualize the measure in terms of a "magnetic flux" of solutions through phase space. Previous studies identified a divergence in the measure, which we observe to be due to the dilatation invariance of flat FRW universes. We show that the divergence is removed if we identify universes which are so flat they cannot be observationally distinguished. The resulting measure is independent of time and of the choice of coordinates on the space of fields. We further show that, for some quantities of interest, the measure is very insensitive to the details of how the identification is made. One such quantity is the probability of inflation in simple scalar field models. We find that, according to our implementation of the canonical measure, the probability for N e-folds of inflation in single-field, slow-roll models is suppressed by of order exp(-3N) and we discuss the implications of this result.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures. Revised version with clarifying remarks on meaning of adopted measure, extra references and minor typographical correction

Vanishing Scalar Invariant Spacetimes in Higher Dimensions

We study manifolds with Lorentzian signature and prove that all scalar curvature invariants of all orders vanish in a higher-dimensional Lorentzian spacetime if and only if there exists an aligned non-expanding, non-twisting, geodesic null direction along which the Riemann tensor has negative boost order.Comment: final versio

Non-ergodic site response model based on local recordings for Menta Dam site

The paper describes the development of a non-ergodic site response model for a strategic site in the Aspromonte mountains, in Southern Italy. Fractured metamorphic rocks belonging to Calabrian complex outcrop in this area, located in a region where Southern Apennines crustal faults and subduction of the Calabrian Arc contribute to the seismic hazard. At the site, three accelerometers are installed since 2016 as part of the monitoring system of the Menta Dam, a bituminous-faced rockfill dam constructed for the water supply of the region. Ground motions recorded at the site and elsewhere from regional crustal and subduction earthquakes have been used to evaluate region-specific source and path adjustment to global ground motion models (GMMs). Those regionally adjusted GMMs have, in turn, been used to evaluate the mean bias of site-specific recordings, which is used to estimate non-ergodic site response for the dam site. This analysis highlights that site-specific site response is appreciably larger than the global average prediction of GMMs for periods lower than 0.4s. A non-ergodic GMM is developed that accounts for these effects to be used in subsequent Probabilistic Site Hazard Analysis (PSHA)