Analytical method for designing grating compensated dispersion-managed soliton systems

This paper was published in Journal of Optical Society of America B and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=JOSAB-21-4-706. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under law. © 2004 The Optical Society.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Caring behaviours of student nurses: Effects of pre-registration nursing education

In an increasing technologised and cost-constrained healthcare environment, the role of pre-registration nursing education in nurturing and developing the professional caring disposition of students is becoming far more critical than before. In view of this growing demand, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of Singapore's pre-registration nursing programmes on students' concept of caring. A descriptive quantitative cross-sectional survey collected data using the Caring Behaviour Inventory from first and final year student nurses, nurse lecturers and nurses in practice. The findings based on student surveys indicated a statistically significant reduction in the overall level of caring behaviour in first to final year students. When compared with the findings of lecturers and nurses, less variance to lecturers than to nurses was found amongst the first years' score, and the lowest variance to nurses was demonstrated amongst the final year. A greater reduction was evidenced amongst Singaporean students, which was exaggerated with exposure to pre-enrolled nursing education and magnified with caring job experience. This study indicates more effort is necessary to harness student caring attributes in students' entire educational journey so that expressive caring is not subsumed in the teaching of students to meet demands of complicated contemporary care

Daily smoking and lower back pain in adult Canadians: the Canadian Community Health Survey

Fahad Alkherayf1,2,3, Eugene K Wai4,5,6, Eve C Tsai1,3,4,6, Charles Agbi1,3,41University of Ottawa, Division of Neurosurgery, Ottawa, Ontario; 2University of Ottawa, Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Ottawa, Ontario; 3The Ottawa Hospital, Civic campus, Division of Neurosurgery, Ottawa, Ontario; 4The Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus, Spine Unit Ottawa, Ontario; 5The Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus, Division of Orthopedic Surgery, Ottawa, Ontario; 6The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, CanadaBackground: Lower back pain (LBP) is one of the primary causes of disability in the Canadian community. However, only a limited number of studies have addressed the association between daily smoking and LBP in Canada. Of the studies that have explored this association, many had small sample sizes and failed to control for confounders.Objective: The primary objective of the study was to determine if daily smoking is associated with an increased risk of having LBP. The secondary objectives were to assess the risk for LBP among occasional smokers and to determine the prevalence of LBP in relation to different covariates.Data and study design: Using the Canadian Community Health Survey (cycle 3.1) data, 73,507 Canadians between the ages of 20 and 59 years were identified. LBP status, smoking level, sex, age, body mass index (BMI), level of activity and level of education were assessed in these subjects.Methods: Stratified analysis and logistic regression analysis were used to detect effect modifications and to adjust for covariates. Population weight and design were taken into consideration.Results: The prevalence of LBP was 23.3% among daily smokers and 15.7% among non-smokers. Age and sex were found to be effect modifiers. The association between LBP and daily smoking was statistically significant in all ages and genders; this association was stronger for younger age groups. The adjusted odds ratio for male daily smokers aged 20 to 29 was 1.87 (95% CI = 1.62, 2.17); findings were similar for women. Occasional smoking slightly increased the odds of having back pain.Conclusion: Young Canadian daily smokers are at higher risk for LBP. This study also suggests a positive correlation between smoking dose and the risk of LBP. These findings indicate that smoking behavioral modification may have an impact on reducing back pain especially among young adults.Keywords: lower back pain, smoking, Canadian Community Health Survey, sex, adult Canadian

Suppression and Enhancement of Soliton Switching During Interaction in Periodically Twisted Birefringent Fiber

Soliton interaction in periodically twisted birefringent optical fibers has been analysed analytically with refernce to soliton switching. For this purpose we construct the exact general two-soliton solution of the associated coupled system and investigate its asymptotic behaviour. Using the results of our analytical approach we point out that the interaction can be used as a switch to suppress or to enhance soliton switching dynamics, if one injects multi-soliton as an input pulse in the periodically twisted birefringent fiber.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Latex, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Developmental dyscalculia and low numeracy in Chinese children

Children struggle with mathematics for different reasons. Developmental dyscalculia and low numeracy - two kinds of mathematical difficulties - may have their roots, respectively, in poor understanding of exact non-symbolic numerosities and of symbolic numerals. This study was the first to explore whether Chinese children, despite cultural and linguistic factors supporting their mathematical learning, also showed such mathematical difficulties and whether such difficulties have measurable impact on children's early school mathematical performance. First-graders, classified as dyscalculia, low numeracy, or normal achievement, were compared for their performance in various school mathematical tasks requiring a grasp of non-symbolic numerosities (i.e., non-symbolic tasks) or an understanding of symbolic numerals (i.e., symbolic tasks). Children with dyscalculia showed poorer performance than their peers in non-symbolic tasks but not symbolic ones, whereas those with low numeracy showed poorer performance in symbolic tasks but not non-symbolic ones. As hypothesized, these findings suggested that dyscalculia and low numeracy were distinct deficits and caused by deficits in non-symbolic and symbolic processing, respectively. These findings went beyond prior research that only documented generally low mathematical achievements for these two groups of children. Moreover, these deficits appeared to be persistent and could not be remedied simply through day-to-day school mathematical learning. The present findings highlighted the importance of tailoring early learning support for children with these distinct deficits, and pointed to future directions for the screening of such mathematical difficulties among Chinese children. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.postprin

Computational Relativistic Astrophysics With Adaptive Mesh Refinement: Testbeds

We have carried out numerical simulations of strongly gravitating systems based on the Einstein equations coupled to the relativistic hydrodynamic equations using adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) techniques. We show AMR simulations of NS binary inspiral and coalescence carried out on a workstation having an accuracy equivalent to that of a $1025^3$ regular unigrid simulation, which is, to the best of our knowledge, larger than all previous simulations of similar NS systems on supercomputers. We believe the capability opens new possibilities in general relativistic simulations.Comment: 7 pages, 16 figure

Frenkel line and solubility maximum in supercritical fluids

This research utilised Queen Mary’s MidPlus computational facilities, supported by QMUL Research-IT and funded by EPSRC Grant EP/K000128/1. K.T. is grateful to EPSRC, C.Y. to CSC. V.V.B. is grateful to RSF (14-2200093) for financial support