Association between Antibiotic Prescribing in Pregnancy and Cerebral Palsy or Epilepsy in Children Born at Term: A Cohort Study Using The Health Improvement Network.

Between 19%-44% pregnant women are prescribed antibiotics during pregnancy. A single, large randomised-controlled-trial (ORACLE Childhood Study II) found an increased risk of childhood cerebral palsy and possibly epilepsy following prophylactic antibiotic use in pregnant women with spontaneous preterm labour. We ascertained whether this outcome could be reproduced across the population of babies delivered at term and prospectively followed in primary-care using data from The Health Improvement Network

On the infeasibility of entanglement generation in Gaussian quantum systems via classical control

This paper uses a system theoretic approach to show that classical linear time invariant controllers cannot generate steady state entanglement in a bipartite Gaussian quantum system which is initialized in a Gaussian state. The paper also shows that the use of classical linear controllers cannot generate entanglement in a finite time from a bipartite system initialized in a separable Gaussian state. The approach reveals connections between system theoretic concepts and the well known physical principle that local operations and classical communications cannot generate entangled states starting from separable states.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. To appear in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 201

Do men consult less than women? An analysis of routinely collected UK general practice data

<p>Objective To examine whether gender differences in primary care consultation rates (1) vary by age and deprivation status and (2) diminish when consultation for reproductive reasons or common underlying morbidities are accounted for.</p> <p>Design Cross-sectional study of a cohort of patients registered with general practice.</p> <p>Setting UK primary care.</p> <p>Subjects Patients (1 869 149 men and 1 916 898 women) registered with 446 eligible practices in 2010.</p> <p>Primary outcome measures Primary care consultation rate.</p> <p>Results This study analyses routinely collected primary care consultation data. The crude consultation rate was 32% lower in men than women. The magnitude of gender difference varied across the life course, and there was no ‘excess’ female consulting in early and later life. The greatest gender gap in primary care consultations was seen among those aged between 16 and 60 years. Gender differences in consulting were higher in people from more deprived areas than among those from more affluent areas. Accounting for reproductive-related consultations diminished but did not eradicate the gender gap. However, consultation rates in men and women who had comparable underlying morbidities (as assessed by receipt of medication) were similar; men in receipt of antidepressant medication were only 8% less likely to consult than women in receipt of antidepressant medication (relative risk (RR) 0.916, 95% CI 0.913 to 0.918), and men in receipt of medication to treat cardiovascular disease were just 5% less likely to consult (RR=0.950, 95% CI 0.948 to 0.952) than women receiving similar medication. These small gender differences diminished further, particularly for depression (RR=0.950, 95% CI 0.947 to 0.953), after also taking account of reproductive consultations.</p> <p>Conclusions Overall gender differences in consulting are most marked between the ages of 16 and 60 years; these differences are only partially accounted for by consultations for reproductive reasons. Differences in consultation rates between men and women were largely eradicated when comparing men and women in receipt of medication for similar underlying morbidities.</p&gt

A Reciprocity Theorem for Monomer-Dimer Coverings

The problem of counting monomer-dimer coverings of a lattice is a longstanding problem in statistical mechanics. It has only been exactly solved for the special case of dimer coverings in two dimensions. In earlier work, Stanley proved a reciprocity principle governing the number $N(m,n)$ of dimer coverings of an $m$ by $n$ rectangular grid (also known as perfect matchings), where $m$ is fixed and $n$ is allowed to vary. As reinterpreted by Propp, Stanley's result concerns the unique way of extending $N(m,n)$ to $n < 0$ so that the resulting bi-infinite sequence, $N(m,n)$ for $n \in {Z}$, satisfies a linear recurrence relation with constant coefficients. In particular, Stanley shows that $N(m,n)$ is always an integer satisfying the relation $N(m,-2-n) = \epsilon_{m,n}N(m,n)$ where $\epsilon_{m,n} = 1$ unless $m\equiv$ 2(mod 4) and $n$ is odd, in which case $\epsilon_{m,n} = -1$. Furthermore, Propp's method is applicable to higher-dimensional cases. This paper discusses similar investigations of the numbers $M(m,n)$, of monomer-dimer coverings, or equivalently (not necessarily perfect) matchings of an $m$ by $n$ rectangular grid. We show that for each fixed $m$ there is a unique way of extending $M(m,n)$ to $n < 0$ so that the resulting bi-infinite sequence, $M(m,n)$ for $n \in {Z}$, satisfies a linear recurrence relation with constant coefficients. We show that $M(m,n)$, a priori a rational number, is always an integer, using a generalization of the combinatorial model offered by Propp. Lastly, we give a new statement of reciprocity in terms of multivariate generating functions from which Stanley's result follows.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Discrete Models for Complex Systems (DMCS) 2003 conference. (v2 - some minor changes