673 research outputs found
Hospital food service: a comparative analysis of systems and introducing the âSteamplicityâ concept
Background Patient meals are an integral part of treatment hence the provision and consumption of a balanced diet, essential to aid recovery. A number of food service systems are used to provide meals and the Steamplicity concept has recently been introduced. This seeks, through the application of a static, extended choice menu, revised patient ordering procedures, new cooking processes and individual patient food heated/cooked at ward level, to address some of the current hospital food service concerns. The aim of this small-scale study, therefore, was to compare a cook-chill food service operation against Steamplicity. Specifically, the goals were to measure food intake and wastage at ward level; âstakeholdersâ (i.e. patients, staff, etc.) satisfaction with both systems; and patientsâ acceptability of the food provided.
Method The study used both quantitative (self-completed patient questionnaires, n = 52) and qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, n = 16) with appropriate stakeholders including medical and food service staff, patients and their visitors.
Results Patients preferred the Steamplicity system overall and in particular in terms of food choice, ordering, delivery and food quality. Wastage was considerably less with the Steamplicity system, although care must be taken to ensure that poor operating procedures do not negate this advantage. When the total weight of food consumed in the ward at each meal is divided by the number of main courses served, at lunch, the mean intake with the cook-chill system was 202 g whilst that for the Steamplicity system was 282 g and for the evening meal, 226 g compared with 310 g.
Conclusions The results of this small study suggest that Steamplicity is more acceptable to patients and encourages the consumption of larger portions. Further evaluation of the Steamplicity system is warranted.
The purpose of this study was to directly compare selected aspects (food wastage at ward level; satisfaction with systems and food provided) of a traditional cook-chill food service operation against âSteamplicityâ. Results indicate that patients preferred the âSteamplictyâ system in all areas: food choice, ordering, delivery, food quality and overall. Wastage was considerably less with the âSteamplicityâ system; although care must be taken to ensure that poor operating procedures do not negate this advantage. When the total weight of food consumed in the ward at each meal is divided by the number of main courses served, results show that at lunch, mean intake with the cook-chill system was 202g whilst that for the âSteamplicityâ system was 282g and for the evening meal, 226g compared with 310g
Pion-photon and photon-pion transition form factors in light-cone formalism
We derive the minimal Fock-state expansions of the pion and the photon wave
functions in light-cone formalism, then we calculate the pion-photon and the
photon-pion transition form factors of and
processes by employing these
quark-antiquark wave functions of the pion and the photon. We find that our
calculation for the transition form factor
agrees with the experimental data at low and moderately high energy scale.
Moreover, the physical differences and inherent connections between the
transition form factors of and have been illustrated, which indicate that these
two physical processes are intrinsically related. In addition, we also discuss
the form factor and the decay width at .Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure
Heavy quarkonium 2S states in light-front quark model
We study the charmonium 2S states and , and the bottomonium
2S states and , using the light-front quark model and the
2S state wave function of harmonic oscillator as the approximation of the 2S
quarkonium wave function. The decay constants, transition form factors and
masses of these mesons are calculated and compared with experimental data.
Predictions of quantities such as Br are made. The
2S wave function may help us learn more about the structure of these heavy
quarkonia.Comment: 5 latex pages, final version for journal publicatio
B_c meson rare decays in the light-cone quark model
We investigate the rare decays
and in the framework of the
light-cone quark model (LCQM). The transition form factors are calculated in
the space-like region and then analytically continued to the time-like region
via exponential parametrization. The branching ratios and longitudinal lepton
polarization asymmetries (LPAs) for the two decays are given and compared with
each other. The results are helpful to investigating the structure of
meson and to testing the unitarity of CKM quark mixing matrix. All these
results can be tested in the future experiments at the LHC.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures, version accepted for publication in EPJ
Validity of the self-administered comorbidity questionnaire in patients with inflammatory bowel disease
Background: The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement has selected the self-administered comorbidity questionnaire (SCQ) to adjust case-mix when comparing outcomes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treatment between healthcare providers. However, the SCQ has not been validated for use in IBD patients. Objectives: We assessed the validity of the SCQ for measuring comorbidities in IBD patients. Design: Cohort study. Methods: We assessed the criterion validity of the SCQ for IBD patients by comparing patient-reported and clinician-reported comorbidities (as noted in the electronic health record) of the 13 diseases of the SCQ using Cohenâs kappa. Construct validity was assessed using the Spearman correlation coefficient between the SCQ and the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), clinician-reported SCQ, quality of life, IBD-related healthcare and productivity costs, prevalence of disability, and IBD disease activity. We assessed responsiveness by correlating changes in the SCQ with changes in healthcare costs, productivity costs, quality of life, and disease activity after 15 months. Results: We included 613 patients. At least fair agreement (Îș > 0.20) was found for most comorbidities, but the agreement was slight (Îș < 0.20) for stomach disease [Îș = 0.19, 95% CI (â0.03; 0.41)], blood disease [Îș = 0.02, 95% CI (â0.06; 0.11)], and back pain [Îș = 0.18, 95% CI (0.11; 0.25)]. Correlations were found between the SCQ and the clinician-reported SCQ [Ï = 0.60, 95% CI (0.55; 0.66)], CCI [Ï = 0.39, 95% CI (0.31; 0.45)], the prevalence of disability [Ï = 0.23, 95% CI (0.15; 0.32)], and quality of life [Ï = â0.30, 95% CI (â0.37; â0.22)], but not between the SCQ and healthcare or productivity costs or disease activity (|Ï| â©œ 0.2). A change in the SCQ after 15 months was not correlated with a change in any of the outcomes.Conclusion: The SCQ is a valid tool for measuring comorbidity in IBD patients, but face and content validity should be improved before being used to correct case-mix differences.</p
Defects and glassy dynamics in solid He-4: Perspectives and current status
We review the anomalous behavior of solid He-4 at low temperatures with
particular attention to the role of structural defects present in solid. The
discussion centers around the possible role of two level systems and structural
glassy components for inducing the observed anomalies. We propose that the
origin of glassy behavior is due to the dynamics of defects like dislocations
formed in He-4. Within the developed framework of glassy components in a solid,
we give a summary of the results and predictions for the effects that cover the
mechanical, thermodynamic, viscoelastic, and electro-elastic contributions of
the glassy response of solid He-4. Our proposed glass model for solid He-4 has
several implications: (1) The anomalous properties of He-4 can be accounted for
by allowing defects to freeze out at lowest temperatures. The dynamics of solid
He-4 is governed by glasslike (glassy) relaxation processes and the
distribution of relaxation times varies significantly between different
torsional oscillator, shear modulus, and dielectric function experiments. (2)
Any defect freeze-out will be accompanied by thermodynamic signatures
consistent with entropy contributions from defects. It follows that such
entropy contribution is much smaller than the required superfluid fraction, yet
it is sufficient to account for excess entropy at lowest temperatures. (3) We
predict a Cole-Cole type relation between the real and imaginary part of the
response functions for rotational and planar shear that is occurring due to the
dynamics of defects. Similar results apply for other response functions. (4)
Using the framework of glassy dynamics, we predict low-frequency yet to be
measured electro-elastic features in defect rich He-4 crystals. These
predictions allow one to directly test the ideas and very presence of glassy
contributions in He-4.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figure
Measurement of Leading Proton and Neutron Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA
Deep--inelastic scattering events with a leading baryon have been detected by
the H1 experiment at HERA using a forward proton spectrometer and a forward
neutron calorimeter. Semi--inclusive cross sections have been measured in the
kinematic region 2 <= Q^2 <= 50 GeV^2, 6.10^-5 <= x <= 6.10^-3 and baryon p_T
<= MeV, for events with a final state proton with energy 580 <= E' <= 740 GeV,
or a neutron with energy E' >= 160 GeV. The measurements are used to test
production models and factorization hypotheses. A Regge model of leading baryon
production which consists of pion, pomeron and secondary reggeon exchanges
gives an acceptable description of both semi-inclusive cross sections in the
region 0.7 <= E'/E_p <= 0.9, where E_p is the proton beam energy. The leading
neutron data are used to estimate for the first time the structure function of
the pion at small Bjorken--x.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Eur. Phys.
Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset
corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected
during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV.
The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the
couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and
right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary
mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b,
leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing
transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W'
boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to
the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for
masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC
data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed
coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant
improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe
Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The
analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC
from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an
integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross
section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected
exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the
standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The
analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model
Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The
largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is
observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance
of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local
significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is
estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of
this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters
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