1,184 research outputs found
A multi-centre qualitative study exploring the experiences of UK South Asian and White Diabetic Patients referred for renal care
Background
An exploration of renal complications of diabetes from the patient perspective is important for developing quality care through the diabetic renal disease care pathway.
Methods
Newly referred South Asian and White diabetic renal patients over 16 years were recruited from nephrology outpatient clinics in three UK centres - Luton, West London and Leicester â and their experiences of the diabetes and renal care recorded.
A semi-structured qualitative interview was conducted with 48 patients. Interview transcripts were analysed thematically and comparisons made between the White and South Asian groups.
Results
23 South Asian patients and 25 White patients were interviewed. Patient experience of diabetes ranged from a few months to 35 years with a mean time since diagnosis of 12.1 years and 17.1 years for the South Asian and White patients respectively. Confusion emerged as a response to referral shared by both groups. This sense of confusion was associated with reported lack of information at the time of referral, but also before referral. Language barriers exacerbated confusion for South Asian patients.
Conclusions
The diabetic renal patients who have been referred for specialist renal care and found the referral process confusing have poor of awareness of kidney complications of diabetes. Healthcare providers should be more aware of the ongoing information needs of long term diabetics as well as the context of any information exchange including language barriers
Target Mass Effects in Polarized Virtual Photon Structure Functions
We study target mass effects in the polarized virtual photon structure
functions , in the kinematic
region , where is the mass squared of
the probe (target) photon. We obtain the expressions for and in closed form by inverting the
Nachtmann moments for the twist-2 and twist-3 operators. Numerical analysis
shows that target mass effects appear at large and become sizable near
, the maximal value of , as the ratio
increases. Target mass effects for the sum rules of and
are also discussed.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX, 9 eps figure
Polarized Virtual Photon Structure Function and Twist-3 Effects in QCD
We investigate the twist-3 effects in the polarized virtual photon structure.
The structure functions and of polarized photon could
be experimentally studied in the future polarized or colliders.
The leading contributions to are the twist-2 effects, while
another structure function , which only exists for the virtual
photon target, receives not only the twist-2 but also twist-3 contributions. We
first show that the twist-3 effects actually exist in the box-diagram
contributions and we extract the twist-3 part, which can also be reproduced by
the pure QED operator product expansion. We then calculate the non-trivial
lowest moment () of the twist-3 contribution to in QCD. For
large (the number of colors), the QCD analysis of the twist-3 effects in
the flavor nonsinglet part of becomes tractable and we can obtain
its moments in a compact form for all .Comment: 27 pages, LaTeX, 9 eps figures, eqsection.sty file included, Appendix
A added, some minor changes for Fig.
The role of research in global food and nutrition security
The present discussion document gives an overview of where European research can add the most value in relation to tackling food and nutrition security challenges and points to areas where we can expand our research potential. Moreover, it highlights the need to develop a governance structure that will allow sharing of best practices and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and innovation to feed the planet sustainably. It should stimulate a global discussion with stakeholders and the general public, ultimately shaping a legacy for Expo 2015.JRC.A.TF-EXPO 201
Where are the High Velocity Clouds in Local Group Analogs?
High-velocity clouds (HVCs) are clouds of HI seen around the Milky Way with
velocities inconsistent with Galactic rotation, have unknown distances and
masses and controversial origins. One possibility is that HVCs are associated
with the small dark matter halos seen in models of galaxy formation and
distributed at distances of 150 kpc - 1 Mpc. We report on our attempts to
detect the analogs to such putative extragalactic clouds in three groups of
galaxies similar to our own Local Group using the ATNF Parkes telescope and
Compact Array. Eleven dwarf galaxies were found, but no HI clouds lacking stars
were detected. Using the population of compact HVCs around the Milky Way as a
template, we find that our non-detection of analogs implies that they must be
clustered within 160 kpc of the Milky Way (and other galaxies) with an average
HI mass <4x10^5 M(sun) at the 95% confidence level. This is in accordance with
recent limits derived by other authors. If our groups are true analogs to the
Local Group, then this makes the original Blitz et al. and Braun & Burton
picture of HVCs residing out to 1 Mpc from the Milky Way extremely unlikely.
The total HI mass in HVCs, < 10^8 M(sun), implies that there is not a large
reservoir of neutral hydrogen waiting to be accreted onto the Milky Way. Any
substantial reservoir of baryonic matter must be mostly ionized or condensed
enough as to be undetectable.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, ApJ letters, in pres
An HI survey of six Local Group analogs: I. Survey description and the search for high-velocity clouds
We have conducted an HI 21 cm emission-line survey using the Parkes 20cm
multibeam instrument and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) of six
loose groups of galaxies chosen to be analogs to the Local Group. The goal of
this survey is to make a census of the HI-rich galaxies and high-velocity
clouds (HVCs) within these groups and compare these populations with those in
the Local Group. The Parkes observations covered the entire volume of each
group with a rms M(HI) sensitivity of 4-10x10^5 M(sun) per 3.3 km/s channel.
All potential sources detected in the Parkes data were confirmed with ATCA
observations at ~2' resolution and the same M(sun) sensitivity. All the
confirmed sources have associated stellar counterparts; no starless HI
clouds--HVC analogs--were found in the six groups. In this paper, we present a
description of the survey parameters, its sensitivity and completeness. Using
the population of compact HVCs (CHVCs) around the Milky Way as a template
coupled with the detailed knowledge of our survey parameters, we infer that our
non-detection of CHVC analogs implies that, if similar populations exist in the
six groups studied, the CHVCs must be clustered within 90 kpc of group
galaxies, with average M(HI) < 4x10^5 M(sun) at the 95% confidence level. The
corollary is that the same must apply to Milky Way CHVCs. This is consistent
with our previous results from a smaller sample of groups, and in accordance
with recent observational and theoretical constraints from other authors. These
results confirm that there is very little neutral matter around galaxies, and
that any substantial reservoir of baryons must be in other phases.Comment: 10 pages, ApJ accepte
Recommended from our members
Report from the First Snake Genomics and Integrative Biology Meeting
This report summarizes the proceedings of the 1st Snake Genomics and Integrative Biology Meeting held in Vail, CO USA, 5-8 October 2011. The meeting had over twenty registered participants, and was conducted as a single session of presentations. Goals of the meeting included coordination of genomic data collection and fostering collaborative interactions among researchers using snakes as model systems.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog
Report from the First Snake Genomics and Integrative Biology Meeting
This report summarizes the proceedings of the 1st Snake Genomics and Integrative Biology Meeting held in Vail, CO USA, 5-8 October 2011. The meeting had over twenty registered participants, and was conducted as a single session of presentations. Goals of the meeting included coordination of genomic data collection and fostering collaborative interactions among researchers using snakes as model systems
The New Galaxy: Signatures of its Formation
The formation and evolution of galaxies is one of the great outstanding
problems of astrophysics. Within the broad context of hierachical structure
formation, we have only a crude picture of how galaxies like our own came into
existence. A detailed physical picture where individual stellar populations can
be associated with (tagged to) elements of the protocloud is far beyond our
current understanding. Important clues have begun to emerge from both the
Galaxy (near-field cosmology) and the high redshift universe (far-field
cosmology). Here we focus on the fossil evidence provided by the Galaxy.
Detailed studies of the Galaxy lie at the core of understanding the complex
processes involved in baryon dissipation. This is a necessary first step
towards achieving a successful theory of galaxy formation.Comment: 51 pages (with figs embedded) + 4 colour plates. The interested
reader is strongly encouraged to ignore the latex version and low res figures
within; instead, download the properly typeset paper (6 Mby) and colour
plates (3 Mby) from ftp://www.aao.gov.au/pub/local/jbh/araa/Galley
A pleiotropic missense variant in SLC39A8 is associated with Crohn's disease and human gut microbiome composition
Genome-wide association studies have identified 200 inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) loci, but the genetic architecture of Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis remain incompletely defined. Here, we aimed to identify novel associations between IBD and functional genetic variants using the Illumina ExomeChip (San Diego, CA)
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