Impact of female age and nulligravidity on fecundity in an older reproductive age cohort

To provide female age-related estimates of fecundity and incidence of infertility by history of prior pregnancy among women 30 to 44 years of age

The relationship between headache-attributed disability and lost productivity: 3 Attack frequency is the dominating variable.

BACKGROUND: In an earlier paper, we examined the relationship between headache-attributed disability, measured as proportion of time in ictal state, and lost productivity. In a linear model, we found positive and significant associations with lost paid worktime, lost household worktime and total lost productivity (paid + household), but with high variance, which was increased when headache intensity was introduced as a factor. We speculated that analyses based on headache frequency alone as the independent variable, eliminating both the subjectivity of intensity estimates and the uncertainties of duration, might show stronger associations. METHODS: Focusing on migraine, we used individual participant data from 16 countries surveyed either in population-based studies or in the Eurolight project. These data included frequency (headache days/month), usual attack duration (hours), usual headache intensity ("not bad", "quite bad", "very bad") and lost productivity from paid and household work according to enquiries using the Headache-Attributed Lost Time (HALT) questionnaire. We used multiple linear regressions, calculating regression equations along with unstandardized and standardized regression coefficients. We made line and bar charts to visualize relationships. RESULTS: Both frequency and intensity were significant predictors of lost productivity in all multiple linear regressions, but duration was a non-significant predictor in several of the regressions. Predicted productivity in paid work decreased among males by 0.75-0.85 days/3 months for each increase of 1 headache day/month, and among females by 0.34-0.53 days/3 months. In household chores, decreases in productivity for each added day/month of headache were more similar (0.67-0.87 days/3 months among males, 0.83-0.89 days/3 months among females). Visualizations showed that the impact of duration varied little across the range of 2-24 h. The standardized regression coefficients demonstrated that frequency was a much better predictor of lost productivity than intensity or duration. CONCLUSION: In the relationship between migraine-attributed impairment (symptom burden) and lost productivity, frequency (migraine days/month) is the dominating variable - more important than headache intensity and far more important than episode duration. This has major implications for current practice in headache care and for health policy and health-resource investment. Preventative drugs, grossly underutilized in current practice, offer a high prospect of economic benefit (cost-saving), but new preventative drugs are needed with better efficacy and/or tolerability

Highly efficient, tunable single photon source based on single molecules

The authors studied spatially isolated terrylene molecules immobilized in a quasiplanar optical λ/2-microresonator using confocal microscopy and spectroscopy at variable temperatures. At T = 1.8 K, they observed individual molecules relaxing into microresonator-allowed vibronic levels of their electronic ground state by emission of single fluorescence photons. Coupling the purely electronic transition of embedded molecules to the longitudinal photonic mode of the microresonator resulted in an ultimate spectral narrowing and an increased collection efficiency of the emitted single photon wave trains

Scale dependent superconductor-insulator transition

We study the disorder driven superconductor to insulator transition in amorphous films of high carrier-concentration indium-oxide. Using thin films with various sizes and aspect ratios we show that the `critical' sheet-resistance $R_{{\small \square}}$ depends systematically on sample geometry; superconductivity disappears when $R_{{\small \square}}$ exceeds $\approx6$k$\Omega$ in large samples. On the other hand, wide and sufficiently short samples of the same batch exhibit superconductivity (judged by conductivity versus temperature) up to $R_{{\small \square}}$ which is considerably larger. These results support the inhomogeneous scenario for the superconductor-insulator transition.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of "Fluctuations and phase transitions in superconductors", Nazareth Ilit, Israel, June 10-14, 200

Device-spectroscopy of magnetic field effects in a polyfluorene organic light-emitting diode

We perform charge-induced absorption and electroluminescence spectroscopy in a polyfluorene organic magnetoresistive device. Our experiments allow us to measure the singlet exciton, triplet exciton and polaron densities in a live device under an applied magnetic field, and to distinguish between three different models that were proposed to explain organic magnetoresistance. These models are based on different spin-dependent interactions, namely exciton formation, triplet exciton-polaron quenching and bipolaron formation. We show that the singlet exciton, triplet exciton and polaron densities and conductivity all increase with increasing magnetic field. Our data are inconsistent with the exciton formation and triplet-exciton polaron quenching models.Comment: 4 pages, two figure

Structured education can improve primary-care management of headache: the first empirical evidence, from a controlled interventional study

Headache disorders are under-recognized and under-diagnosed. A principal factor in their suboptimal management is lack of headache-related training among health-care providers, especially in primary care. In Estonia, general practitioners (GPs) refer many headache patients to neurological specialist services, mostly unnecessarily. GPs request diagnostic investigations, which are usually unhelpful and therefore wasteful. GP-made headache diagnoses are often arcane and non-specific, and treatments based on these are inappropriate. The aim of this study was to develop, implement and test an educational model intended to improve headache-related primary health care in Estonia.This was a controlled study consisting of baseline observation, intervention and follow-up observation using the same measures of effect. It involved six GPs in Põlva and the surrounding region in Southern Estonia, together with their future patients presenting consecutively with headache as their main complaint, all with their consent. The primary outcome measure was referral rate (RR) to neurological specialist services. Secondary measures included number of GP-requested investigations, GP-made headache diagnoses and how these conformed to standard terminology (ICD-10), and GP-recommended or initiated treatments.RR at baseline (n = 490) was 39.5 %, falling to 34.7 % in the post-intervention group (n = 295) (overall reduction 4.8 %; p = 0.21). In the large subgroup of patients (88 %) for whom GPs made clearly headache-related ICD-10 diagnoses, RR fell by one fifth (from 40 to 32 %; p = 0.08), but the only diagnosis-related RR that showed a statistically significant reduction was (pericranial) myalgia (19 to 3 %; p = 0.03). There was a significant increase towards use of more specific diagnoses. Use of investigations in diagnosing headache reduced from 26 to 4 % (p < 0.0001). Initiation of treatment by GPs increased from 58 to 81 % (p < 0.0001).These were modest changes in GPs entrenched behaviour. Nevertheless they were empirical evidence that GPs practice in the field of headache could be improved by structured education. Furthermore, the changes were likely to be cost-saving. To our knowledge this study is the first to produce such evidence

Water chemistry reveals a significant decline in coral calcification rates in the southern Red Sea

Experimental and field evidence support the assumption that global warming and ocean acidification is decreasing rates of calcification in the oceans. Local measurements of coral growth rates in reefs from various locations have suggested a decline of ~6-10% per decade since the late 1990’s. Here we show by measuring open water strontium-to-alkalinity ratios along the Red Sea that the net contribution of hermatypic corals to the CaCO3 budget of the southern and central Red Sea declined by ~100% between 1998 and 2015 and remained low between 2015 and 2018. Measured differences in total-alkalinity of the Red Sea surface water indicate a 26±16% decline in total CaCO3 deposition rates along the basin. These findings suggest that coral reefs of the southern Red Sea are under severe stress and demonstrate the strength of geochemical measurements as cost-effective indicators for calcification trends on regional scales.Blavatnik fellowship to Z

Transport in the XX chain at zero temperature: Emergence of flat magnetization profiles

We study the connection between magnetization transport and magnetization profiles in zero-temperature XX chains. The time evolution of the transverse magnetization, m(x,t), is calculated using an inhomogeneous initial state that is the ground state at fixed magnetization but with m reversed from -m_0 for x0. In the long-time limit, the magnetization evolves into a scaling form m(x,t)=P(x/t) and the profile develops a flat part (m=P=0) in the |x/t|1/2 while it expands with the maximum velocity, c_0=1, for m_0->0. The states emerging in the scaling limit are compared to those of a homogeneous system where the same magnetization current is driven by a bulk field, and we find that the expectation values of various quantities (energy, occupation number in the fermionic representation) agree in the two systems.Comment: RevTex, 8 pages, 3 ps figure

Sequential Processing and the Matching-Stimulus Interval Effect in ERP Components: An Exploration of the Mechanism Using Multiple Regression

In oddball tasks, increasing the time between stimuli within a particular condition (target-to-target interval, TTI; nontarget-to-nontarget interval, NNI) systematically enhances N1, P2, and P300 event-related potential (ERP) component amplitudes. This study examined the mechanism underpinning these effects in ERP components recorded from 28 adults who completed a conventional three-tone oddball task. Bivariate correlations, partial correlations and multiple regression explored component changes due to preceding ERP component amplitudes and intervals found within the stimulus series, rather than constraining the task with experimentally constructed intervals, which has been adequately explored in prior studies. Multiple regression showed that for targets, N1 and TTI predicted N2, TTI predicted P3a and P3b, and Processing Negativity (PN), P3b, and TTI predicted reaction time. For rare nontargets, P1 predicted N1, NNI predicted N2, and N1 predicted Slow Wave (SW). Findings show that the mechanism is operating on separate stages of stimulus-processing, suggestive of either increased activation within a number of stimulus-specific pathways, or very long component generator recovery cycles. These results demonstrate the extent to which matching-stimulus intervals influence ERP component amplitudes and behavior in a three-tone oddball task, and should be taken into account when designing similar studies

Reinstating the Novelty P3

P300 (or P3) is a major positive complex in the human event-related potential, occurring some 300 ms after stimulus onset, and long thought to be the cortical correlate of the Orienting Reflex, our automatic attention-grabbing response to a novel stimulus. The Novelty P3 was the third P3 subcomponent discovered (after P3a and P3b) and appeared promising in its sensitivity to stimulus novelty, the defining characteristic of the Orienting Reflex. But some 15 years later it was claimed to be indistinguishable from the previously-discovered P3a. This led to a decline in interest in the field and confused nomenclature, with some studies using P3a and Novelty P3 interchangeably. However, recent similar studies have again reported three subcomponents of the P3. Further, using single-stimulus habituation paradigms, in addition to P3a and P3b, a later decrementing P3 subcomponent has been reported, and recently labelled HabP3 to avoid contention. We report three studies to resolve this chaotic situation, arguing for identification of the late subcomponent following the P3a and P3b as the Novelty P3. Reinstatement of the Novelty P3 as the central index of the Orienting Reflex will have widespread impact in a range of theoretical, practical, and clinical areas involving novelty processing and attention