Comparison of the effect of semi-rigid ankle bracing on performance among injured v. non-injured adolescent female hockey players

Objective. To determine the comparative proprioceptive performance of injured v. non-injured adolescent female hockey players wearing an ankle brace.Methods. Data were collected from 100 high school players who belonged to the Highway Secondary School Hockey League, KwaZulu-Natal, via voluntary parental informed consent and player assent. Players completed an injury questionnaire probing the prevalence and nature of hockey injuries (March - August 2013). Subsequently, players completed a Biodex proprioceptive test with and without an ankle brace. Probability was set at p≤0.05.Results. Twenty-two players sustained ankle injuries within the 6-month study period (p<0.001). Injured players performed similarly without bracing (right anterior posterior index (RAPI) 2.8 (standard deviation (SD) 0.9); right medial lateral index (RMLI) 1.9 (0.7); left anterior posterior index (LAPI) 2.7 (0.9); left medial lateral index (LMLI) 1.7 (0.6)) compared with bracing (RAPI 2.7 (1.4); RMLI 1.8 (0.6); LAPI 2.6 (1.0); LMLI 1.5 (0.6)) (p>0.05). However, bracing improved the ankle stability of the non-injured group (RAPI 2.2 (0.8); RMLI 1.5 (0.5); LAPI 2.4 (0.9); RMLI 1.5 (0.5)) compared with their performance without a brace (RAPI 2.5 (1.0); RMLI 1.8 (0.8); LAPI 2.8 (1.1); LMLI 1.8 (0.6)) (p<0.05).Conclusion. Ankle bracing did not enhance the stability of injured ankles. However, ankle bracing has an ergogenic effect that enhances the stability of healthy ankles

Upward revision of global fossil fuel methane emissions based on isotope database

Methane has the second-largest global radiative forcing impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gases after carbon dioxide, but our understanding of the global atmospheric methane budget is incomplete. The global fossil fuel industry (production and usage of natural gas, oil and coal) is thought to contribute 15 to 22 per cent of methane emissions to the total atmospheric methane budget. However, questions remain regarding methane emission trends as a result of fossil fuel industrial activity and the contribution to total methane emissions of sources from the fossil fuel industry and from natural geological seepage, which are often co-located. Here we re-evaluate the global methane budget and the contribution of the fossil fuel industry to methane emissions based on long-term global methane and methane carbon isotope records. We compile the largest isotopic methane source signature database so far, including fossil fuel, microbial and biomass-burning methane emission sources. We find that total fossil fuel methane emissions (fossil fuel industry plus natural geological seepage) are not increasing over time, but are 60 to 110 per cent greater than current estimates owing to large revisions in isotope source signatures. We show that this is consistent with the observed global latitudinal methane gradient. After accounting for natural geological methane seepage, we find that methane emissions from natural gas, oil and coal production and their usage are 20 to 60 per cent greater than inventories. Our findings imply a greater potential for the fossil fuel industry to mitigate anthropogenic climate forcing, but we also find that methane emissions from natural gas as a fraction of production have declined from approximately 8 per cent to approximately 2 per cent over the past three decades.Published88-916A. Geochimica per l'ambienteJCR Journa

Estimating and Reporting on the Quality of Inpatient Stroke Care by Veterans Health Administration Medical Centers

Background—Reporting of quality indicators (QIs) in Veterans Health Administration Medical Centers is complicated by estimation error caused by small numbers of eligible patients per facility. We applied multilevel modeling and empirical Bayes (EB) estimation in addressing this issue in performance reporting of stroke care quality in the Medical Centers. Methods and Results—We studied a retrospective cohort of 3812 veterans admitted to 106 Medical Centers with ischemic stroke during fiscal year 2007. The median number of study patients per facility was 34 (range, 12–105). Inpatient stroke care quality was measured with 13 evidence-based QIs. Eligible patients could either pass or fail each indicator. Multilevel modeling of a patient's pass/fail on individual QIs was used to produce facility-level EB-estimated QI pass rates and confidence intervals. The EB estimation reduced interfacility variation in QI rates. Small facilities and those with exceptionally high or low rates were most affected. We recommended 8 of the 13 QIs for performance reporting: dysphagia screening, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale documentation, early ambulation, fall risk assessment, pressure ulcer risk assessment, Functional Independence Measure documentation, lipid management, and deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis. These QIs displayed sufficient variation across facilities, had room for improvement, and identified sites with performance that was significantly above or below the population average. The remaining 5 QIs were not recommended because of too few eligible patients or high pass rates with little variation. Conclusions—Considerations of statistical uncertainty should inform the choice of QIs and their application to performance reporting

EUDAQ - A data acquisition software framework for common beam telescopes

EUDAQ is a generic data acquisition software developed for use in conjunction with common beam telescopes at charged particle beam lines. Providing high-precision reference tracks for performance studies of new sensors, beam telescopes are essential for the research and development towards future detectors for high-energy physics. As beam time is a highly limited resource, EUDAQ has been designed with reliability and ease-of-use in mind. It enables flexible integration of different independent devices under test via their specific data acquisition systems into a top-level framework. EUDAQ controls all components globally, handles the data flow centrally and synchronises and records the data streams. Over the past decade, EUDAQ has been deployed as part of a wide range of successful test beam campaigns and detector development applications

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Search for direct stau production in events with two hadronic tau-leptons in root s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of the supersymmetric partners ofτ-leptons (staus) in final stateswith two hadronically decayingτ-leptons is presented. The analysis uses a dataset of pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of139fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LargeHadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the expected StandardModel background is observed. Limits are derived in scenarios of direct production of stau pairs with eachstau decaying into the stable lightest neutralino and oneτ-lepton in simplified models where the two staumass eigenstates are degenerate. Stau masses from 120 GeV to 390 GeV are excluded at 95% confidencelevel for a massless lightest neutralino

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Leadership, staffing and quality of care in nursing homes

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Leadership and staffing are recognised as important factors for quality of care. This study examines the effects of ward leaders' task- and relationship-oriented leadership styles, staffing levels, ratio of registered nurses and ratio of unlicensed staff on three independent measures of quality of care.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional survey of forty nursing home wards throughout Norway was used to collect the data. Five sources of data were utilised: self-report questionnaires to 444 employees, interviews with and questionnaires to 13 nursing home directors and 40 ward managers, telephone interviews with 378 relatives and 900 hours of field observations. Separate multi-level analyses were conducted for quality of care assessed by relatives, staff and field observations respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Task-oriented leadership style had a significant positive relationship with two of the three quality of care indexes. In contrast, relationship-oriented leadership style was not significantly related to any of the indexes. The lack of significant effect for relationship-oriented leadership style was due to a strong correlation between the two leadership styles (<it>r </it>= 0.78). Staffing levels and ratio of registered nurses were not significantly related to any of the quality of care indexes. The ratio of unlicensed staff, however, showed a significant negative relationship to quality as assessed by relatives and field observations, but not to quality as assessed by staff.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Leaders in nursing homes should focus on active leadership and particularly task-oriented behaviour like structure, coordination, clarifying of staff roles and monitoring of operations to increase quality of care. Furthermore, nursing homes should minimize use of unlicensed staff and address factors related to high ratios of unlicensed staff, like low staff stability. The study indicates, however, that the relationship between staffing levels, ratio of registered nurses and quality of care is complex. Increasing staffing levels or the ratio of registered nurses alone is not likely sufficient for increasing quality of care.</p