Uptake of systematic reviews and meta-analyses based on individual participant data in clinical practice guidelines: descriptive study.

To establish the extent to which systematic reviews and meta-analyses of individual participant data (IPD) are being used to inform the recommendations included in published clinical guidelines

Movies in the classroom: lessons for curriculum design

There is a burgeoning body of literature (Johnson and Jackson 2005; Cornett, 2006; Jensen and Curtis, 2008; Smith, 2009; Edwards et al, 2015) which suggests that, by incorporating into our teaching the humanities, including film, we can enhance the learning experience of our students and help lay the foundations for greater sensitivity, understanding and empathy, as well as make the learning more ‘real’

Boron nitride nanotubes : pronounced resistance to oxidation

Boron nitride (BN) nanotubes have the same nanostructure as carbon nanotubes but are found to exhibit significant resistance to oxidation at high temperatures. Our systematic study has revealed that BN nanotubes are stable at 700 &deg;C in air and that some thin nanotubes (diameter less than 20 nm) with perfect multiwalled cylindrical structure can survive up to 900 &deg;C. Thermogravimetric analysis reveals an onset temperature for oxidation of BN nanotubes of 800 &deg;C compared with only 400 &deg;C for carbon nanotubes under the same conditions. This more pronounced resistance of BN nanotubes to oxidation is inherited from the hexagonal BN and also depends on the nanocrystalline structure. This high level of resistance to oxidation allows promising BN nanotube applications athigh temperatures<br /

Movies in the classroom: Lessons for curriculum design

Public health is considered to be both a science and an art, in which we seek to protect, improve and promote human health and enhance quality of life. It is a wide-ranging discipline, encompassing a broad mix of practitioners who work across a variety of organisational settings, and draws from science, technology, social sciences and law. Leadership, too, is often described as an art and as a field of study “draws on both the arts and the sciences” (Gill, 2006, p. 5). However, the word ‘art’ is frequently used indiscriminately and also ambiguously; it is a word that we often associate with the humanities, yet there has been relatively little discussion of how both public health and leadership, as subjects of study, are informed by the humanities. In what ways can the humanities, here largely defined as a collection of academic disciplines that include literature, drama and film, be used to enhance the learning of those practising, or seeking to practise, in the fields of public health and leadership? There is a burgeoning body of literature which suggests that, by incorporating into our teaching the humanities, including film, we can enhance the learning experience of our students and help lay the foundations for greater sensitivity, understanding and empathy, as well as make the learning more ‘real’. In medicine, too, there has been growing interest in the use of the humanities to enhance medical training, with much of the literature suggesting that exposure can help make those who practise medicine more empathetic, understanding and thoughtful in their work. Why not, then, explore how this might be incorporated into the teaching of public health and leadership

Induced-gravity Inflation and the Density Perturbation Spectrum

Recent experimental determinations of the spectral index describing the scalar mode spectrum of density perturbations encourage comparison with predictions from models of the very early universe. Unlike extended inflation, Induced-gravity Inflation predicts a power spectrum with $0.98 \leq n_s \leq 1.00$, in close agreement with the experimental measurements.Comment: 11pp, no figures. Plain LaTeX. HUTP-94/A011. Revised edition -- Forthcoming in Physics Letters

Cesarean or vaginal birth does not impact the longitudinal development of the gut microbiome in a cohort of exclusively preterm infants

The short and long-term impact of birth mode on the developing gut microbiome in neonates has potential implications for the health of infants. In term infants, the microbiome immediately following birth across multiple body sites corresponds to birth mode, with increased Bacteroides in vaginally delivered infants. We aimed to determine the impact of birth mode of the preterm gut microbiome over the first 100 days of life and following neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge. In total, 867 stool samples from 46 preterm infants (21 cesarean and 25 vaginal), median gestational age 27 weeks, were sequenced (V4 region 16S rRNA gene, Illumina MiSeq). Of these, 776 samples passed quality filtering and were included in the analysis. The overall longitudinal alpha-diversity and within infant beta-diversity was comparable between cesarean and vaginally delivered infants. Vaginally delivered infants kept significantly more OTUs from 2 months of life and following NICU discharge, but OTUs lost, gained, and regained were not different based on birth mode. Furthermore, the temporal progression of dominant genera was comparable between birth modes and no significant difference was found for any genera following adjustment for covariates. Lastly, preterm gut community types (PGCTs) showed some moderate differences in very early life, but progressed toward a comparable pattern by week 5. No PGCT was significantly associated with cesarean or vaginal birth. Unlike term infants, birth mode was not significantly associated with changes in microbial diversity, composition, specific taxa, or overall microbial development in preterm infants. This may result from the dominating effects of NICU exposures including the universal use of antibiotics immediately following birth and/or the lack of Bacteroides colonizing preterm infants

Moduli Inflation from Dynamical Supersymmetry Breaking

Moduli fields, which parameterize perturbative flat directions of the potential in supersymmetric theories, are natural candidates to act as inflatons. An inflationary potential on moduli space can result if the scale of dynamical SUSY breaking in some sector of the theory is determined by a moduli dependent coupling. The magnitude of density fluctuations generated during inflation then depends on the scale of SUSY breaking in this sector. This can naturally be hierarchically smaller than the Planck scale in a dynamical model, giving small fluctuations without any fine tuning of parameters. It is also natural for SUSY to be restored at the minimum of the moduli potential, and to leave the universe with zero cosmological constant after inflation. Acceptable reheating can also be achieved in this scenario.Comment: 14 pages, latex, improved discussion of reheating for composite inflaton