Women’s experiences of over-the-counter and prescription medication during pregnancy in the UK: findings from survey free-text responses and narrative interviews

OBJECTIVES: To explore women's experiences of over-the-counter and prescription medication advice and use during pregnancy. DESIGN: A study design consisting of an online survey and nested in-depth interviews with a subsample of participants. We analysed data from survey free-text responses and in-depth interviews using thematic analysis. Quantitative survey data is published elsewhere.The UK. PARTICIPANTS: Women were eligible if living in the UK, aged 16-45 years, were pregnant or had been pregnant in the last 5 years regardless of pregnancy outcome. A total of 7090 women completed the survey, and 34 women who collectively had experienced 68 pregnancies were subsequently interviewed. RESULTS: Medication prescribing and use during pregnancy was common. The prescribing, dispensing and taking of some advised medications were restricted through women's or prescribers' fear of fetal harm. Lack of adherence to national prescribing guidance, conflicting professional opinion and poor communication resulted in maternal anxiety, avoidable morbidity and women negotiating complex and distressing pathways to obtain recommended medications. In contrast, some women felt overmedicated and that pharmacological treatments were used without exploring other options first. CONCLUSION: Increased translation of national guidance into practice and greater personalisation of antenatal care are needed to improve the safety, efficacy and personalisation of prescribing in pregnancy

Analysis of trends in adolescent suicides and accidental deaths in England and Wales, 1972–2011

Background Previous analyses of adolescent suicides in England and Wales have focused on short time periods. Aims To investigate trends in suicide and accidental deaths in adolescents between 1972 and 2011. Method Time trend analysis of rates of suicides and deaths from accidental poisoning and hanging in 10- to 19-year-olds by age, gender and deprivation. Rate ratios were estimated for 1982–1991, 1992–2001 and 2002–2011 with 1972–1981 as comparator. Results Suicide rates have remained stable in 10- to 14-year-olds, with strong evidence for a reduction in accidental deaths. In males aged 15–19, suicide rates peaked in 2001 before declining. Suicide by hanging is the most common method of suicide. Rates were higher in males and in 15- to 19-year-olds living in more deprived areas. Conclusions Suicide rates in adolescents are at their lowest since the early 1970s with no clear evidence that changes in coroners' practices underlie this trend

Simple DFT-LSDA modeling of the molecular-like aspects of ultra-thin film properties

Ordered ultra-thin films (UTF`s) are atomic n-layers (n = 1,2,3,...) with translational symmetry in-plane and molecular-like inter-planar spacings. Though commonly used (especially at relatively large n-values) as models of crystalline surfaces, they are intrinsically interesting and of growing technological significance as the basic building blocks of multi-layer electronic devices. Predicting the structure and properties of even a simple diatomic 1-layer means addressing aspects of molecular binding (and boundary conditions) in the context of an extended, periodically bounded system. At the level of refinement provided by the local spin density approximation to Density Functional Theory, the baseline standard of today`s predictive, chemically specific solid-state calculations, a number of technical and fundamental issues arise. The authors focus on treatment of the isolated atoms, on basis sets, and on numerical precision, as illustrated by the Fe atom and BN 1- and 2-layer calculations. Computational requirements are illustrated by a brief summary of recently completed calculations on crystalline sapphire, {alpha}-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, which used the same code

The rate of hypo-osmotic challenge influences regulatory volume decrease (RVD) and mechanical properties of articular chondrocytes

Zhao Wang is funded on a China Scholarships PhD Studentship. Jerome Irianto was supported on a project grant from The Wellcome Trust (ref no. 084717)

Concert recording 2022-04-02a

[Track 1]. Boris Kerner / Caroline Shaw (arr. Dylan Matheny) -- [Track 2]. Limestone & felt / Caroline Shaw (arr. Dylan Matheny) -- [Track 3]. Snapshots. I. Frantic, hyperventilating ; II. Chain ; III. Nervous ; IV. Early bird special / Takuma Itah -- [Track 4]. Different trains. III. After the war / Steve Reich (arr. Dylan Matheny) -- [Track 5]. Stubborn as hell / Stacy Garrop -- [Track 6]. Twitter birds blog / Takashi Yoshimatsu (arr. Dylan Matheny)

Concert recording 2022-04-02a

[Track 1]. Boris Kerner / Caroline Shaw (arr. Dylan Matheny) -- [Track 2]. Limestone & felt / Caroline Shaw (arr. Dylan Matheny) -- [Track 3]. Snapshots. I. Frantic, hyperventilating ; II. Chain ; III. Nervous ; IV. Early bird special / Takuma Itah -- [Track 4]. Different trains. III. After the war / Steve Reich (arr. Dylan Matheny) -- [Track 5]. Stubborn as hell / Stacy Garrop -- [Track 6]. Twitter birds blog / Takashi Yoshimatsu (arr. Dylan Matheny)

Some Problems in Density Functional Theory

Though calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) are used remarkably widely in chemistry, physics, materials science, and biomolecular research and though the modern form of DFT has been studied for almost 60 years, some mathematical problems remain. For context, we provide an outline of the basic structure of DFT, then pose several questions regarding both its time-independent and time-dependent forms. Progress on any of these would aid in development of better approximate functionals and in interpretation

Stem cell differentiation increases membrane-actin adhesion regulating cell blebability, migration and mechanics

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/K. S. is funded by an EPSRC PhD studentship. S.T. is funded by an EU Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (GENOMICDIFF)