A system for improving vitamin D nutrition in residential care

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Objective: To assess the feasibility of administering an inexpensive preparation of vitamin D3 100 000 IU orally 3 monthly to aged-care residents. Design: Prospective, controlled open-label implementation trial. Setting: Residential aged care, November 2003 to May 2004 (primary study). Participants: 137 ambulant residents: 107 treated (mean age, 85 years; 79 were women), 30 untreated controls (mean age, 87 years; 22 were women). Interventions: Lactose microencapsulated vitamin D3 100 000 IU orally at baseline, then 3 monthly (three or more doses); untreated subjects were observed contemporaneously. Main outcome measures: Serum levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] at 6 months compared with baseline; acceptability of the program to residents and staff. Results: At baseline, 95% of residents assessed (n = 137) had serum 25(OH)D levels below the desirable range of 60–160 nmol/L. At 6 months, all treated residents (n = 98) achieved desired levels, with the mean (± SD) 25(OH)D level increasing from 36.4 ± 12.6 nmol/L (range, 12–75 nmol/L) at baseline to 124.0 ± 27.9 nmol/L (range, 68–244 nmol/L). In no resident did 25(OH)D approach toxic levels. The mean serum 25(OH)D level remained low in the control group (n = 27): 42.8 ± 18.3 nmol/L (range, 18–98 nmol/L). The difference between the mean 25(OH)D levels of treatment and control groups at 6 months was 81.2 nmol/L (95% CI, 69.7–92.0 nmol/L). The cost of the supplement was $4 per resident per annum. Substudies showed mean trough serum 25(OH)D levels in the desired range at 3 months (n = 31), but below the desired range at 6 months (n = 50). Subjects given 3-monthly doses for up to 2 years maintained serum 25(OH)D levels within the desired range, with no trend toward undesirable accumulation (n = 11). Conclusions: Vitamin D3 100 000 IU given orally 3 monthly is a practical, safe, effective and inexpensive way to meet the vitamin D3 requirements of aged-care residents.Alison E R Wigg, Caroline Prest, Peter Slobodian, Allan G Need and Leslie G Clelan

Signals of Bose Einstein condensation and Fermi quenching in the decay of hot nuclear systems

We report experimental signals of Bose-Einstein condensation in the decay of hot Ca projectile-like sources produced in mid-peripheral collisions at sub-Fermi energies. The experimental setup, constituted by the coupling of the INDRA 4$\pi$ detector array to the forward angle VAMOS magnetic spectrometer, allowed us to reconstruct the mass, charge and excitation energy of the decaying hot projectile-like sources. Furthermore, by means of quantum fluctuation analysis techniques, temperatures and mean volumes per particle "as seen by" bosons and fermions separately are correlated to the excitation energy of the reconstructed system. The obtained results are consistent with the production of dilute mixed (bosons/fermions) systems, where bosons experience a smaller volume as compared to the surrounding fermionic gas. Our findings recall similar phenomena observed in the study of boson condensates in atomic traps.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (december 2014

Prevalence and treatment implications of ICD-11 complex PTSD in Australian treatment-seeking current and ex-serving military members

Background: Despite growing support for the distinction between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD (CPTSD) as separate diagnoses within the ICD-11 psychiatric taxonomy, the prevalence and treatment implications of CPTSD among current and ex-serving military members have not been established. Objective: The study aims were to a) establish the prevalence of provisional ICD-11 CPTSD diagnosis relative to PTSD in an Australian sample of treatment-seeking current and ex-serving military members, and b) examine the implications of CPTSD diagnosis for intake profile and treatment response. Methods: The study analysed data collected routinely from Australian-accredited treatment programmes for military-related PTSD. Participants were 480 current and ex-serving military members in this programmes who received a provisional ICD-11 diagnosis of PTSD or CPTSD at intake using proxy measures. Measures of PTSD symptoms, disturbances in self-organisation, psychological distress, mental health and social relationships were considered at treatment intake, discharge, and 3-month follow-up. Results: Among participants with a provisional ICD-11 diagnosis, 78.2% were classified as having CPTSD, while 21.8% were classified as having PTSD. When compared to ICD-11 PTSD, participants with CPTSD reported greater symptom severity and psychological distress at intake, and lower scores on relationship and mental health dimensions of the quality of life measure. These relative differences persisted at each post-treatment assessment. Decreases in PTSD symptoms between intake and discharge were similar across PTSD (dRM = −0.81) and CPTSD (dRM = −0.76) groups, and there were no significant post-treatment differences between groups when controlling for initial scores. Conclusions: CPTSD is common among treatment-seeking current and ex-serving military members, and is associated with initially higher levels of psychiatric severity, which persist over time. Participants with CPTSD were equally responsive to PTSD treatment; however, the tendency for those with CPTSD to remain highly symptomatic post-treatment suggests additional treatment components should be considered

The ASY-EOS experiment at GSI: investigating the symmetry energy at supra-saturation densities

The elliptic-flow ratio of neutrons with respect to protons in reactions of neutron rich heavy-ions systems at intermediate energies has been proposed as an observable sensitive to the strength of the symmetry term in the nuclear Equation Of State (EOS) at supra-saturation densities. The recent results obtained from the existing FOPI/LAND data for $^{197}$Au+$^{197}$Au collisions at 400 MeV/nucleon in comparison with the UrQMD model allowed a first estimate of the symmetry term of the EOS but suffer from a considerable statistical uncertainty. In order to obtain an improved data set for Au+Au collisions and to extend the study to other systems, a new experiment was carried out at the GSI laboratory by the ASY-EOS collaboration in May 2011.Comment: Talk given by P. Russotto at the 11th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA, May 27-June 1, 2012. To appear in the NN2012 Proceedings in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS

Residual cognitive deficits 50 years after lead poisoning during childhood

The long term neurobehavioural consequences of childhood lead poisoning are not known. In this study adult subjects with a documented history of lead poisoning before age 4 and matched controls were examined with an abbreviated battery of neuropsychological tests including measures of attention, reasoning, memory, motor speed, and current mood. The subjects exposed to lead were inferior to controls on almost all of the cognitive tasks. This pattern of widespread deficits resembles that found in children evaluated at the time of acute exposure to lead rather than the more circumscribed pattern typically seen in adults exposed to lead. Despite having completed as many years of schooling as controls, the subjects exposed to lead were lower in lifetime occupational status. Within the exposed group, performance on the neuropsychological battery and occupational status were related, consistent with the presumed impact of limitations in neuropsychological functioning on everyday life. The results suggest that many subjects exposed to lead suffered acute encephalopathy in childhood which resolved into a chronic subclinical encephalopathy with associated cognitive dysfunction still evident in adulthood. These findings lend support to efforts to limit exposure to lead in childhood

Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland. ClaReNet. Klassifikation und Repräsentation keltischer Münzprägungen im Netz. Das Projekt von 2021 bis 2024

The joint project ClaReNet, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, is testing the possibilities and the limits of new methods of classification and representation on the basis of three Celtic coinages, each selected as an example for specific research questions and problems. Traditional approaches to classification in numismatics and archaeology are compared with classification methods from information technology, including deep learning. An extendable virtual union catalogue, celticcoinage.org, complying with the FAIR principles, will be implemented for the coin series that we are investigating. The work process will be accompanied by a science and technology study, which will contribute to a reflection on the changes in knowledge processes that result from the use of digital tools and algorithms. The aim is to systematically assess in an interdisciplinary dialogue the potential and limits of automation for processes of classification and representation in numismatics and archaeology

Ding-Editionen. Vom archäologischen (Be-)Fund übers Corpus ins Netz

Corpora, thing-editions, are a central epistemic instrument of knowledge generation for archaeology. Due to digitisation attention has turned once more to various strategies and the politics of representation, and in the course of the debate on (post-)factualism and cultures of knowledge and data we are striving to render the production of knowledge more visible and comprehensible. Following B. Latour’s concept of circulating reference, editions are products of a praxeological connection between the world and representations. This is a report on the ongoing discussion of central questions and objectives for digital corpora and research data management following the FAIR (findable, accessible, inter-operable, re-usable) principle

Future research on information technology in knowledge management

Over the past two decades, knowledge management (KM) and the use of information technologies (IT) has attracted increasing interest. IT is widely considered as a vital part of KM, providing means for knowledge creation, sharing, and capture. However, failures of KM in organizational practice are often attributed to an overemphasis of IT. Although KM and IT seem inextricably linked, research still struggles to identify a proper composition of the two. Via input from a global panel of KM experts from academia and practice (n = 222), we identify social software; consumerization (of knowledge); human factors; and the redesign of work, systems, and practices as future key research areas. These are contrasted with review papers proposing research in technologies aimed at supporting KM. On this basis, we present a future research agenda that should enhance the relationship between KM and IT, including their intersection through technology enablers

Pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a spectrum of disease ranging from hepatocellular steatosis through steatohepatitis to fibrosis and irreversible cirrhosis. The prevalence of NAFLD has risen rapidly in parallel with the dramatic rise in obesity and diabetes, and is rapidly becoming the most common cause of liver disease in Western countries. Indeed, NAFLD is now recognized to be the aetiology in many cases previously labelled as cryptogenic cirrhosis