Predictors of young women\u27s attitudes toward sexual health practices

The present study examined whether cognitive (beliefs), affective (emotions) and I or behavioural processes predicted young women\u27s attitudes towards their sexual health practices. For pragmatic reasons, safer sex promotion has largely relied on the provision of factual information to promote behaviour change. Although the importance of emotional and behavioural influences has been indicated, these elements have not traditionally been included in sexual health interventions. In order to examine this issue, Zanna and Rempel\u27s (1988) tripartite model of attitude formation was used. A convenience sample of female participants (N=98) aged 18 to 29 years was asked to rate their attitudes towards three sexual health behaviours; using condoms, having many short-term partners, and getting tested for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). Participants reported and evaluated their own beliefs and emotions about the health behaviours, and indicated the frequency with which they had previously undertaken each behaviour. Standard multiple regressions indicated that past behaviour predicted attitudes towards all of the three health behaviours. In addition, emotions predicted using condoms and getting tested for. STIs, and beliefs predicted having many short-term partners. The study supported the application of Zanna and Rempel\u27s theory of attitude formation to the domain of sexual health. The importance of emotional and behavioural elements in the formation of attitudes towards sexual health practices was highlighted, suggesting the opportunity for intervention strategies to incorporate these elements to improve the promotion of safer sex behaviours. Finally, the importance of gender-sensitive sexual health promotion was emphasised

The heavy quark's self energy from moving NRQCD on the lattice

We present a calculation of the heavy quark's self energy in moving NRQCD to one-loop in perturbation theory. Results for the energy shift and external momentum renormalisation are discussed and compared with non-perturbative results. We show that the momentum renormalisation is small, which is the result of a remnant of re-parameterisation invariance on the lattice.Comment: Talk given at Lattice2004(heavy), Fermilab, June 21-26, 200

Evaluation of the airborne contamination levels in an intensive care unit over a 24 hour period

Airborne transmission of infectious microorganisms poses a critical threat to human health, particularly in the clinical setting where it is estimated that 10-33% of nosocomial infections are spread via the air. Within the clinical environment, microorganisms originating from the human respiratory tract or skin can become airborne by coughing and sneezing, and periods of increased activity such as bed and dressing changes, movement, staff rounds and visiting hours. Current knowledge of the clinical airborne microflora is limited and there is uncertainty surrounding the contribution of airborne microorganisms to the transmission of nosocomial infection. This study aims to establish an improved understanding of the variability in the dynamics and levels of airborne microbial contamination within an operational intensive care unit (ICU). Methods Environmental monitoring of airborne contamination levels was conducted in Glasgow Royal Infirmary ICU, in the open ward and in both occupied and unoccupied patient isolation rooms. Monitoring was performed using a sieve impactor air sampler, with 500 L air samples collected every 15 minutes over 10 hour (08:00-18:00 h) and 24 hour (08:00-08:00 h) periods. Samples were collected on tryptone soya agar (TSA) plates, and the bacterial contamination levels were recorded as CFU/m3 of air. An activity log was also collated over the 10 hour and 24 hour sampling periods in order to record any activity occurring in the ward/room that might contribute to spikes in airborne contamination levels. Results Results highlight the degree of variability in levels of airborne contamination over the course of both a working day and a 24 hour period in a hospital ICU. A high degree of variability was observed across the 24 hour period, with counts ranging from 12-510 CFU/m3 in one study in an occupied patient room. Peaks in airborne contamination showed a direct relation to an increase in room activity. Monitoring found contamination levels to be lower overall during the night, and in unoccupied isolation rooms, with an average value of 20 CFU/m3. The highest counts were observed in an isolation room occupied for 10 days by a patient with C. difficile infection which generated an average microbial load of 104 CFU/m3 and a peak value of 510 CFU/m3. Discussion This study has demonstrated the degree of airborne contamination that can occur in the ICU environment over a 24 hour period. Numerous factors were found to contribute to the microbial air contamination levels, including patient status, length of room occupation, time of day and room activity, and further work is required to establish the extent to which this airborne bioburden contributes to cross-infection of patients

Efficacy of antimicrobial 405 nm blue-light for inactivation of airborne bacteria

Airborne transmission of infectious organisms is a considerable concern within the healthcare environment. A number of novel methods for ‘whole room’ decontamination, including antimicrobial 405 nm blue light, are being developed. To date, research has focused on its effects against surface-deposited contamination; however, it is important to also establish its efficacy against airborne bacteria. This study demonstrates evidence of the dose-response kinetics of airborne bacterial contamination when exposed to 405 nm light and compares bacterial susceptibility when exposed in three different media: air, liquid and surfaces. Bacterial aerosols of Staphylococcus epidermidis, generated using a 6-Jet Collison nebulizer, were introduced into an aerosol suspension chamber. Aerosolized bacteria were exposed to increasing doses of 405 nm light, and air samples were extracted from the chamber using a BioSampler liquid impinger, with viability analysed using pour-plate culture. Results have demonstrated successful aerosol inactivation, with a 99.1% reduction achieved with a 30 minute exposure to high irradiance (22 mWcm-2) 405 nm light (P=0.001). Comparison to liquid and surface exposures proved bacteria to be 3-4 times more susceptible to 405 nm light inactivation when in aerosol form. Overall, results have provided fundamental evidence of the susceptibility of bacterial aerosols to antimicrobial 405 nm light treatment, which offers benefits in terms of increased safety for human exposure, and eradication of microbes regardless of antibiotic resistance. Such benefits provide advantages for a number of applications including ‘whole room’ environmental decontamination, in which reducing levels of airborne bacteria should reduce the number of infections arising from airborne contamination

Excited B mesons from the lattice

We determine the energies of the excited states of a heavy-light meson $Q\bar{q}$, with a static heavy quark and light quark with mass approximately that of the strange quark from both quenched lattices and with dynamical fermions. We are able to explore the energies of orbital excitations up to L=3, the spin-orbit splitting up to L=2 and the first radial excitation. These $b \bar{s}$ mesons will be very narrow if their mass is less than 5775 MeV -- the $BK$ threshold. We investigate this in detail and present evidence that the scalar meson (L=1) will be very narrow and that as many as 6 $b \bar{s}$ excited states will have energies close to the $BK$ threshold and should also be relatively narrow.Comment: 17 pages, 6 ps figure

Exact Absorption Probability in the Extremal Six-Dimensional Dyonic String Background

We show that the minimally coupled massless scalar wave equation in the background of an six-dimensional extremal dyonic string (or D1-D5 brane intersection) is exactly solvable, in terms of Mathieu functions. Using this fact, we calculate absorption probabilities for these scalar waves, and present the explicit results for the first few low energy corrections to the leading-order expressions. For a specific tuning of the dyonic charges one can reach a domain where the low energy absorption probability goes to zero with inverse powers of the logarithm of the energy. This is a dividing domain between the regime where the low energy absorption probability approaches zero with positive powers of energy and the regime where the probability is an oscillatory function of the logarithm of the energy. By the conjectured AdS/CFT correspondence, these results shed novel light on the strongly coupled two-dimensional field theory away from its infrared conformally invariant fixed point (the strongly coupled ``non-critical'' string).Comment: Latex (3 times), 23 page

Heavy-Quark Symmetry and the Electromagnetic Decays of Excited Charmed Strange Mesons

Heavy-hadron chiral perturbation theory (HH$\chi$PT) is applied to the decays of the even-parity charmed strange mesons, D_{s0}(2317) and D_{s1}(2460). Heavy-quark spin symmetry predicts the branching fractions for the three electromagnetic decays of these states to the ground states D_s and D_s^* in terms of a single parameter. The resulting predictions for two of the branching fractions are significantly higher than current upper limits from the CLEO experiment. Leading corrections to the branching ratios from chiral loop diagrams and spin-symmetry violating operators in the HH$\chi$PT Lagrangian can naturally account for this discrepancy. Finally the proposal that the D_{s0}(2317) (D_{s1}(2460)) is a hadronic bound state of a D (D^*) meson and a kaon is considered. Leading order predictions for electromagnetic branching ratios in this molecular scenario are in very poor agreement with existing data.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure

Depression, drugs and dental anxiety in prisons:A mediation model explaining dental decay experience

Funding: Scottish Government (award number: 121.804485) and support from the Scottish Prison Service and participating NHS Boards.Objective To test a theoretical mediation model and investigate whether drug use and/or dental anxiety act as mediating factors between depression and dental decay experience among prisoners. Method A cross‐sectional survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 300 prisoners across three prison establishments in Scotland. Depression and dental anxiety were measured using the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale and the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale, respectively. Drug use was assessed using three yes (scoring 1)/ no (scoring 0) questions: ‘ever taken (illegal) drugs’, ‘injecting drugs’ and ‘ever participated in a rehabilitation programme’. Participants had an oral examination to determine dental caries experience (missing [MT] and untreated decay [D3cvT]) in all four quadrants. Latent variable path analysis was conducted to test the mediation model. Results A total of 342 prisoners participated, of which 298 yielded a complete data set. Depression was associated with missing teeth and untreated decay (D3T) through an indirect pathway (Total standardized indirect effects = 0.11, P < .01) via drug use and dental anxiety (X2 [71] = 89.8, P = .07; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation: 0.03; Comparative Fit Index: 0.994 and Tucker‐Lewis index: 0.992). Twenty‐two percent of the variance in untreated decay and missing teeth was explained by both drug use and dental anxiety; however, the strongest predictor was drug use (total standardized direct effects = 0.45, P < .001). Conclusion A relatively simple model to assist understanding dental decay experience of people in prison has been proposed. The data collected were consistent with our specified model. Drug use acted as the primary mediator and dental anxiety as a secondary mediator between depression and dental decay experience. Given the co‐morbidity between mental health and drug use and dental decay experience, an integrated or shared approach is proposed. We recommend that future research should concentrate on building a firmer picture by replicating and extending the framework presented.PostprintPeer reviewe

Looking for magnetic monopoles at LHC with diphoton events

Magnetic monopoles have been a subject of interest since Dirac established the relation between the existence of monopoles and charge quantization. The intense experimental search carried thus far has not met with success. The Large Hadron Collider is reaching energies never achieved before allowing the search for exotic particles in the TeV mass range. In a continuing effort to discover these rare particles we propose here other ways to detect them. We study the observability of monopoles and monopolium, a monopole-antimonopole bound state, at the Large Hadron Collider in the $\gamma \gamma$ channel for monopole masses in the range 500-1000 GeV. We conclude that LHC is an ideal machine to discover monopoles with masses below 1 TeV at present running energies and with 5 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity.Comment: This manuscript contains information appeared in Looking for magnetic monopoles at LHC, arXiv:1104.0218 [hep-ph] and Monopolium detection at the LHC.,arXiv:1107.3684 [hep-ph] by the same authors, rewritten for joint publication in The European Physica Journal Plus. 26 pages, 22 figure