520 research outputs found
The International Surface Pressure Databank version 2
The International Surface Pressure Databank (ISPD) is the world's largest collection of global surface and sea-level pressure observations. It was developed by extracting observations from established international archives, through international cooperation with data recovery facilitated by the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative, and directly by contributing universities, organizations, and countries. The dataset period is currently 1768–2012 and consists of three data components: observations from land stations, marine observing systems, and tropical cyclone best track pressure reports. Version 2 of the ISPD (ISPDv2) was created to be observational input for the Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project (20CR) and contains the quality control and assimilation feedback metadata from the 20CR. Since then, it has been used for various general climate and weather studies, and an updated version 3 (ISPDv3) has been used in the ERA-20C reanalysis in connection with the European Reanalysis of Global Climate Observations project (ERA-CLIM). The focus of this paper is on the ISPDv2 and the inclusion of the 20CR feedback metadata. The Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research provides data collection and access for the ISPDv2, and will provide access to future versions
Support at Home: Interventions to Enhance Life in Dementia (SHIELD) – evidence, development and evaluation of complex interventions
Background: Dementia is a national priority and this research addresses the Prime Minister’s commitment
to dementia research as demonstrated by his 2020 challenge and the new UK Dementia Research Institute.
In the UK > 800,000 older people have dementia. It has a major impact on the lives of people with
dementia themselves, on the lives of their family carers and on services, and costs the nation £26B per
year. Pharmacological cures for dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease are not expected before 2025. If no
cure can be found, the ageing demographic will result in 2 million people living with dementia by 2050.
People with dementia lose much more than just their memory and their daily living skills; they can also lose
their independence, their dignity and status, their confidence and morale, and their roles both within the
family and beyond. They can be seen as a burden by society, by their families and even by themselves, and
may feel unable to contribute to society. This programme of research aims to find useful interventions to
improve the quality of life of people with dementia and their carers, and to better understand how people
with dementia can be supported at home and avoid being admitted to hospital.
Objectives: (1) To develop and evaluate the maintenance cognitive stimulation therapy (MCST) for people
with dementia; (2) to develop the Carer Supporter Programme (CSP), and to evaluate the CSP and
Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today (RYCT) for people with dementia both separately and together in
comparison with usual care; and (3) to develop a home treatment package (HTP) for dementia, to field test
the HTP in practice and to conduct an exploratory trial.
Methods: (1) The MCST programme was developed for people with dementia based on evidence and
qualitative work. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) [with a pilot study of MCST plus acetylcholinesterase
inhibitors (AChEIs)] compared MCST with cognitive stimulation therapy (CST) only. The MCST implementation
study conducted a trial of outreach compared with usual care, and assessed implementation in practice.
(2) The CSP was developed based on existing evidence and the engagement of carers of people with dementia. The RCT (with internal pilot) compared the CSP and reminiscence (RYCT), both separately and
in combination, with usual care. (3) A HTP for dementia, including the most promising interventions and
components, was developed by systematically reviewing the literature and qualitative studies including
consensus approaches. The HTP for dementia was evaluated in practice by conducting in-depth field testing.
Results: (1) Continuing MCST improved quality of life and improved cognition for those taking AChEIs.
It was also cost-effective. The CST implementation studies indicated that many staff will run CST groups
following a 1-day training course, but that outreach support helps staff go on to run maintenance groups
and may also improve staff sense of competence in dementia care. The study of CST in practice found no
change in cognition or quality of life at 8-month follow-up. (2) The CSP/RYCT study found no benefits for
family carers but improved quality of life for people with dementia. RYCT appeared beneficial for the
quality of life of people with dementia but at an excessively high cost. (3) Case management for people
with dementia reduces admissions to long-term care and reduces behavioural problems. In terms of
managing crises, staff suggested more costly interventions, carers liked education and support, and people
with dementia wanted family support, home adaptations and technology. The easy-to-use home treatment
manual was feasible in practice to help staff working in crisis teams to prevent hospital admissions for
people with dementia.
Limitations: Given constraints on time and funding, we were unable to compete the exploratory trial of
the HTP package or to conduct an economic evaluation.
Future research: To improve the care of people with dementia experiencing crises, a large-scale clinical
trial of the home treatment manual is needed.
Conclusion: There is an urgent need for effective psychosocial interventions for dementia. MCST improved
quality of life and was cost-effective, with benefits to cognition for those on AChEIs. MCST was feasible in
practice. Both CSP and RYCT improved the quality of life of people with dementia, but the overall costs
may be too high. The HTP was useful in practice but requires evaluation in a full trial. Dementia care
research may improve the lives of millions of people across the world.
Trial registrations: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN26286067 (MCST), ISRCTN28793457 (MCST
implementation) and ISRCTN37956201 (CSP/RYCT).
Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants
for Applied Research programme and will be published in full in Programme Grants for Applied Research;
Vol. 5, No. 5. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information
Correction: Folate Augmentation of Treatment – Evaluation for Depression (FolATED): protocol of a randomised controlled trial
This correction reports changes in our protocol since its publication. These include changes to authorship and acknowledgements, together with improvements to study design and procedures, and correction of an internal inconsistency. The improvements relate to the exclusion criteria, assessments carried out at screening, and mode of data collection
CANDELS: The progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies at z~2
We combine high-resolution HST/WFC3 images with multi-wavelength photometry
to track the evolution of structure and activity of massive (log(M*) > 10)
galaxies at redshifts z = 1.4 - 3 in two fields of the Cosmic Assembly
Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). We detect compact,
star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) whose number densities, masses, sizes, and star
formation rates qualify them as likely progenitors of compact, quiescent,
massive galaxies (cQGs) at z = 1.5 - 3. At z > 2 most cSFGs have specific
star-formation rates (sSFR = 10^-9 yr^-1) half that of typical, massive SFGs at
the same epoch, and host X-ray luminous AGN 30 times (~30%) more frequently.
These properties suggest that cSFGs are formed by gas-rich processes (mergers
or disk-instabilities) that induce a compact starburst and feed an AGN, which,
in turn, quench the star formation on dynamical timescales (few 10^8 yr). The
cSFGs are continuously being formed at z = 2 - 3 and fade to cQGs by z = 1.5.
After this epoch, cSFGs are rare, thereby truncating the formation of new cQGs.
Meanwhile, down to z = 1, existing cQGs continue to enlarge to match local QGs
in size, while less-gas-rich mergers and other secular mechanisms shepherd
(larger) SFGs as later arrivals to the red sequence. In summary, we propose two
evolutionary scenarios of QG formation: an early (z > 2), fast-formation path
of rapidly-quenched cSFGs that evolve into cQGs that later enlarge within the
quiescent phase, and a slow, late-arrival (z < 2) path for SFGs to form QGs
without passing through a compact state.Comment: Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, 6 pages, 4 figure
Plasma Methylmalonic Acid Concentration in Folic Acid–Supplemented Depressed Patients with Low or Marginal Vitamin B-12: A Randomized Trial
Water soluble, multifunctional antibody-porphyrin gold nanoparticles for targeted photodynamic therapy
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a treatment of cancer by which tumour cells are destroyed using reactive oxygen species produced by photosensitizers following activation with visible or near infrared light. Successful PDT depends on the solubility and the targeting ability of the photosensitizers. In this work, the synthesis of a porphyrin-based water soluble nanoparticle conjugate containing a targeting agent that recognizes the erbB2 receptor overexpressed on the surface of particular cancer cells is reported. The nanoparticle conjugates were synthesized following two different protocols, viz. a biphasic and a monophasic method, with the aim to determine which method yielded the optimal nanosystem for potential PDT applications. The nanoparticles were characterized using UV–Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopies together with transmission electron microscopy and zeta potential measurements; and their ability to produce singlet oxygen following irradiation was investigated following the decay in absorption of a singlet oxygen probe. The nanoparticles synthesized using the monophasic method were shown to produce the highest amount of singlet oxygen and were further functionalized with anti-erbB2 antibody to target the erbB2 receptors expressed on the surface of SK-BR-3 human breast cancer cells. The water soluble, antibody-porphyrin nanoparticle conjugates were shown to elicit targeted PDT of the breast cancer cells
Measurement of the branching ratios of the Z0 into heavy quarks
We measure the hadronic branching ratios of the Z0 boson into heavy quarks:
Rb=Gamma(Z0->bb)/Gamma(Z0->hadrons) and Rc=Gamma(Z0->cc/Gamma(Z0->hadrons)
using a multi-tag technique. The measurement was performed using about 400,000
hadronic Z0 events recorded in the SLD experiment at SLAC between 1996 and
1998. The small and stable SLC beam spot and the CCD-based vertex detector were
used to reconstruct bottom and charm hadron decay vertices with high efficiency
and purity, which enables us to measure most efficiencies from data. We obtain,
Rb=0.21604 +- 0.00098(stat.) +- 0.00073(syst.) -+ 0.00012(Rc) and, Rc= 0.1744
+- 0.0031(stat.) +- 0.0020(syst.) -+ 0.0006(Rb)Comment: 37 pages, 8 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D version 2:
changed title to ratios, used common D production fractions for Rb and Rc and
corrected Zgamma interference. Identical to PRD submissio
Direct Measurements of A_b and A_c using Vertex/Kaon Charge Tags at SLD
Exploiting the manipulation of the SLC electron-beam polarization, we present
precise direct measurements of the parity violation parameters A_c and A_b in
the Z boson - c quark and Z boson - b quark coupling. Quark/antiquark
discrimination is accomplished via a unique algorithm that takes advantage of
the precise SLD CCD vertex detector, employing the net charge of displaced
vertices as well as the charge of kaons that emanate from those vertices. From
the 1996-98 sample of 400,000 Z decays, produced with an average beam
polarization of 73.4%, we find A_c = 0.673 +/- 0.029 (stat.) +/- 0.023 (syst.)
and A_b = 0.919 +/- 0.018 (stat.) +/- 0.017 (syst.).Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables, to be submitted to Physical Review
Letters; version 2 reflects changes suggested by the refere
A Search for Jet Handedness in Hadronic Decays
We have searched for signatures of polarization in hadronic jets from decays using the ``jet handedness'' method. The polar angle
asymmetry induced by the high SLC electron-beam polarization was used to
separate quark jets from antiquark jets, expected to be left- and
right-polarized, respectively. We find no evidence for jet handedness in our
global sample or in a sample of light quark jets and we set upper limits at the
95% C.L. of 0.063 and 0.099 respectively on the magnitude of the analyzing
power of the method proposed by Efremov {\it et al.}Comment: Revtex, 8 pages, 2 figure
Evidence into practice: evaluating a child-centred intervention for diabetes medicine management The EPIC Project
Background: There is a lack of high quality, child-centred and effective health information to support development of self-care practices and expertise in children with acute and long-term conditions. In type 1 diabetes, clinical guidelines indicate that high-quality, child-centred information underpins achievement of optimal glycaemic control with the aim of minimising acute readmissions and reducing the risk of complications in later life. This paper describes the development of a range of child-centred diabetes information resources and outlines the study design and protocol for a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the information resources in routine practice. The aim of the diabetes information intervention is to improve children and young people's quality of life by increasing self-efficacy in managing their type 1 diabetes.Methods/Design: We used published evidence, undertook qualitative research and consulted with children, young people and key stakeholders to design and produce a range of child-centred, age-appropriate children's diabetes diaries, carbohydrate recording sheets, and assembled child-centred, age-appropriate diabetes information packs containing published information in a folder that can be personalized by children and young people with pens and stickers. Resources have been designed for children/young people 6-10; 11-15; and 16-18 years.To evaluate the information resources, we designed a pragmatic randomized controlled trial to assess the effectiveness, cost effectiveness, and implementation in routine practice of individually tailored, age-appropriate diabetes diaries and information packs for children and young people age 6-18years, compared with currently available standard practice. Children and young people will be stratified by gender, length of time since diagnosis ( 2years) and age (6-10; 11-15; and 16-18 years). The following data will be collected at baseline, 3 and 6 months: PedsQL (generic, diabetes and parent versions), and EQ-5 D (parent and child); NHS resource use and process data (questionnaire and interview). Baseline and subsequent HbA1c measurements, blood glucose meter use, readings and insulin dose will be taken from routine test results and hand-held records when attending routine 3-4 monthly clinic visits.The primary outcome measure is diabetes self-efficacy and quality-of-life (Diabetes PedsQL). Secondary outcomes include: HbA1c, generic quality of life, routinely collected NHS/child-held data, costs, service use, acceptability and utility
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