623 research outputs found
"No comment" responses to questions in police investigative interviews [forthcoming]
The other authors are professors of psychology at Loughborough University. Copyright is with Oxford University Press
The relationship between malnutrition risk and clinical outcomes in a cohort of frail older hospital patients
Background & aims Malnutrition has an adverse effect on clinical outcomes and frail older people may be at greater risk of malnutrition. The purpose and aims of this study was to investigate the relationship between markers of malnutrition risk and clinical outcomes in a cohort of frail older hospital patients. Methods 78 frail older hospital patients had the following measurements recorded; length of stay (LOS), time to medical fitness for discharge (TMFFD), body mass index (BMI), malnutrition universal screening tool (MUST) and mini-nutritional assessment short-form (MNA-SF) scores, blood urea, C-reactive protein (CRP), albumin, CRP-albumin ratio; and bioelectrical impedance assessment (BIA) measurements (n = 66). Patients were grouped by mortality status 12 months post hospital admission. Grouping by albumin classification was performed (n = 66) whereby, 35, low. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed on variables as potential predictors of mortality. Results After 12 months, 31% (n = 24) of patients died. LOS was significantly greater in this group (25.0 ± 22.9 vs 15.4 ± 12.7d, P < 0.05). BMI (23.8 ± 4.9 vs 26.4 ± 5.5 kg/m2); fat mass (FM) (17.2 ± 9.9 vs 25.5 ± 10.5 kg), fat mass index (FMI) (9.3 ± 4.1 vs 17.9 ± 2.4 kg/m2); and MNA-SF score (6.6 ± 2.4 vs 8.6 ± 2.7) were significantly lower (P < 0.05), and urea significantly higher (11.4 ± 8.7 vs 8.8 ± 4.4 mmol/l, P = 0.05). Albumin was typically low across the entire group (30.5 ± 5.9 g/l) and a potential relationship was identified between albumin and MNA-SF score. MNA-SF, FM, and FMI were significant predictors of mortality outcome by ROC curve analysis, whereas MUST was a poor predictor. Conclusion This study highlights a potential relationship between indicators of malnutrition risk and clinical outcomes in frail older hospital patients which should be studied in larger cohorts with an aim to improve patient care
Evaluation Nonlinear Soil Response In Situ
Evaluation of nonlinear soil properties is an important concern in geotechnical earthquake engineering. Typically, nonlinear properties are expressed in terms of the nonlinear reduction in shear and constrained moduli with strain and the nonlinear increase in material damping in shear and constrained compression with strain. At this time, there is essentially total dependency on laboratory testing to evaluate nonlinear soil properties. The accuracy and limitations involved in modeling in situ properties with laboratory evaluated properties remains to be studied. In an attempt to evaluate nonlinear soil properties directly in the field, an in situ test method is being developed at the University of Texas that dynamically loads a soil deposit while simultaneously measuring strains, soil properties, and pore water pressures. Initial testing with this method has focused on vertically loading an unsaturated sandy soil, evaluating the magnitude of induced strains, and assessing the variation of constrained modulus (in terms of compression wave velocity, VP) with effective vertical stress and vertical strain. Preliminary results show that the test method can be used to: (1) evaluate the increase in small-strain VP with increasing vertical effective stress, (2) induce nonlinear compressional and shear strains, and (3) evaluate the nonlinear reduction in VP with increasing vertical strain
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LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY AND SHEAR-WAVE VELOCITY IN THE CRYSTALLIZED TOPOPAH SPRING TUFF, YUCCA MOUNTAIN, NEVADA
Evaluation of the seismic response of the proposed spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is in part based on the seismic properties of the host rock, the 12.8-million-year-old Topopah Spring Tuff. Because of the processes that formed the tuff, the densely welded and crystallized part has three lithophysal and three nonlithophysal zones, and each zone has characteristic variations in lithostratigraphic features and structures of the rocks. Lithostratigraphic features include lithophysal cavities, rims on lithophysae and some fractures, spots (which are similar to rims but without an associated cavity or aperture), amounts of porosity resulting from welding, crystallization, and vapor-phase corrosion and mineralization, and fractures. Seismic properties, including shear-wave velocity (V{sub s}), have been measured on 38 pieces of core, and there is a good ''first order'' correlation with the lithostratigraphic zones; for example, samples from nonlithophysal zones have larger V{sub s} values compared to samples from lithophysal zones. Some samples have V{sub s} values that are beyond the typical range for the lithostratigraphic zone; however, these samples typically have one or more fractures, ''large'' lithophysal cavities, or ''missing pieces'' relative to the sample size. Shear-wave velocity data measured in the tunnels have similar relations to lithophysal and nonlithophysal rocks; however, tunnel-based values are typically smaller than those measured in core resulting from increased lithophysae and fracturing effects. Variations in seismic properties such as V{sub s} data from small-scale samples (typical and ''flawed'' core) to larger scale traverses in the tunnels provide a basis for merging our understanding of the distributions of lithostratigraphic features (and zones) with a method to scale seismic properties
The Conversation Analytic Role-play Method (CARM): A Method for Training Communication Skills as an Alternative to Simulated Role-play
This an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Research on Language and Social Interaction on 06-08-2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/08351813.2014.925663.The Conversation Analytic Role-play Method (CARM) is an approach to training, based on
conversation analytic evidence about the problems and roadblocks that can occur in
institutional interaction. Traditional training often relies on role-play, but that differs systematically from the actual events it is meant to mimic and prepare for. In contrast,
CARM uses animated audio- and video-recordings of real-time, actual encounters. CARM
provides a unique framework for discussing and evaluating, in slow motion, actual talk as
people do their jobs. It also provides an evidence base for making decisions about effective
practice and communication policy in organizations. This article describes CARM's
distinctive practices and its impact on professional development across different
organizations. Data are in British English
The interaction of class and gender in illness narratives
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 BSA Publications Ltd.Perspectives on gender and identity that emphasize variability of performance, local context and individual agency have displaced earlier paradigms.These are now perceived to have supported gender stereotypes and language ideologies by emphasizing gender difference and homogeneity within genders. In a secondary analysis of health and illness narratives we explore the interaction of class and gender in individuals' constructions of gendered identity. High social class men perform gender in particularly varied ways and we speculate that this variable repertoire, including the use of what was once termed `women's language', is linked to a capacity to maintain social distinction and authority. Men's performance of conventional masculinity is often threatened by both the experience of illness and being interviewed about personal experience. Lower social class women in particular demonstrate an intensification of a pre-existing informal family and support group culture, marking successful members by awarding them the accolade of being `lovely'.ESR
Reconstructing mass profiles of simulated galaxy clusters by combining Sunyaev-Zeldovich and X-ray images
We present a method to recover mass profiles of galaxy clusters by combining
data on thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich (tSZ) and X-ray imaging, thereby avoiding to
use any information on X-ray spectroscopy. This method, which represents a
development of the geometrical deprojection technique presented in Ameglio et
al. (2007), implements the solution of the hydrostatic equilibrium equation. In
order to quantify the efficiency of our mass reconstructions, we apply our
technique to a set of hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy clusters. We propose
two versions of our method of mass reconstruction. Method 1 is completely
model-independent, while Method 2 assumes instead the analytic mass profile
proposed by Navarro et al. (1997) (NFW). We find that the main source of bias
in recovering the mass profiles is due to deviations from hydrostatic
equilibrium, which cause an underestimate of the mass of about 10 per cent at
r_500 and up to 20 per cent at the virial radius. Method 1 provides a
reconstructed mass which is biased low by about 10 per cent, with a 20 per cent
scatter, with respect to the true mass profiles. Method 2 proves to be more
stable, reducing the scatter to 10 per cent, but with a larger bias of 20 per
cent, mainly induced by the deviations from equilibrium in the outskirts. To
better understand the results of Method 2, we check how well it allows to
recover the relation between mass and concentration parameter. When analyzing
the 3D mass profiles we find that including in the fit the inner 5 per cent of
the virial radius biases high the halo concentration. Also, at a fixed mass,
hotter clusters tend to have larger concentration. Our procedure recovers the
concentration parameter essentially unbiased but with a scatter of about 50 per
cent.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRA
The Death Detectives
The death detectives is a series of blogs about death, photography and seeing the crime written in partnership with The Photographers' Gallery and Surviving Work
The geodesic approximation for lump dynamics and coercivity of the Hessian for harmonic maps
The most fruitful approach to studying low energy soliton dynamics in field
theories of Bogomol'nyi type is the geodesic approximation of Manton. In the
case of vortices and monopoles, Stuart has obtained rigorous estimates of the
errors in this approximation, and hence proved that it is valid in the low
speed regime. His method employs energy estimates which rely on a key
coercivity property of the Hessian of the energy functional of the theory under
consideration. In this paper we prove an analogous coercivity property for the
Hessian of the energy functional of a general sigma model with compact K\"ahler
domain and target. We go on to prove a continuity property for our result, and
show that, for the CP^1 model on S^2, the Hessian fails to be globally coercive
in the degree 1 sector. We present numerical evidence which suggests that the
Hessian is globally coercive in a certain equivariance class of the degree n
sector for n>1. We also prove that, within the geodesic approximation, a single
CP^1 lump moving on S^2 does not generically travel on a great circle.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure; typos corrected, references added, expanded
discussion of the main function spac
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