Baby-Led Weaning: An Approach to Introducing Solid Foods to Infants

This fact discusses what baby-led weaning is and strategies to help parents feed their infant using this approach

Comparative Analyses of Two Methods of Backstroke Starting: Conventional and Whip

Generally, when a new skill, technique, or style is introduced into a sport, the first attempt to describe the change is by the coach or athlete. The biomechanist will then make a careful review of the mechanics involved, test the principles against the given theory, propose directions for future improvements, or reject the change. This procedure often occurs in the sport of swimming. During the last decade, techniques of competitive swimming have improved, resulting in several record-producing performances by the swimmers. This improvement may be attributed, in part, to coaches, researchers, and authors like Counsilman (1977) and Maglischo (1982), Hay (1985), Kreighbaum and Barthels (1985), among others. Backstroke swimming techniques have benefited from the investiveness of coaches, swimmers, and researchers. Probably much of the credit for initiating change in technique belongs to the backstrokers of the time. Two examples are Olympic champions John Naber in 1976 with his «headabove-water spin» turn and Rick Carey in 1984 with his «whip» start. These methods of turning and starting have been adopted by many coaches and swimmers. Even though the Naber turn and the Carey whip start have gained in popularity, little research has been conducted regarding the mechanics of such techniques. For instance, one of the few studies conducted was on the backstroke turns. Benson (1979) filmed two subjects: John Naber executing his unique turn and Peter Rocca (second to Naber in the 1976 Olympics) doing his standard backstroke turn. An elementary comparative eine analysis was made. Benson determined that the Naber turn was more efficient than the standard backstroke turn. Since scientific information about the backstroke whip start is limited. this study was conducted to fill that void and to serve as a basic for further research

Breastfeeding or Formula Feeding: A Mother\u27s Choice

Deciding how to feed an infant is a decision that should be made by a mother and her family. The benefits of exclusively breastfeeding an infant for the first six months of life are well established (World Health Organization [WHO], 2017); however, it may not always be feasible or a preferred option. For mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed, formula feeding is a great option that can support a healthy and thriving infant. This fact sheet will address common questions about breastfeeding and formula feeding to help mothers make an informed decision on how to feed their infant, whether it is by breastfeeding, formula feeding, or a combination of the two

Fluoride: From Birth to Adolescence

This fact sheet discusses the benefits of using fluoride, the most common concerns about fluoride intake in children, and recommendations from birth to adolescence

Go with Your Gut: the Role of Gut Microbiota in Health

Living within your gastrointestinal tract (gut) are about 100 trillion bacterial cells—your gastrointestinal microbiota—a host of bacteria that play a vital role in your body (Ghaisas, Maher, & Kanthasamy, 2016). Your gut microbiome is responsible for a wide variety of functions that contribute to overall health and may be linked to many chronic diseases including cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease (Ghaisaset al., 2016; Peregrin, 2013). This fact sheet will discuss the role the gut microbiome plays in various aspects of health and how to improve your gut health

Heavy-ion fusion driver research at Berkeley and Livermore

The Department of Energy is restructuring the U.S. fusion program to place a greater emphasis on science. As a result, we will not build the ILSE or Elise heavy ion fusion (HIF) facilities described in 1992 and 1994 conferences. Instead we are performing smaller experiments to address important scientific questions. Accelerator technology for HIF is similar to that for other applications such as high energy physics and nuclear physics. The beam physics, however, differs from the physics encountered in most accelerators, where the pressure arising from the beam temperature (emittance) is the dominant factor determining beam size and focusing system design. In HIF, space charge is the dominant feature, leading us into a parameter regime where.the beam plasma frequency becomes comparable to the betatron frequency. Our experiments address the physics of non-neutral plasmas in this novel regime. Because the beam plasma frequency is low, Particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations provide a good description of most of our experiments. Accelerators for HIF consist of several subsystems: ion sources, injectors, matching sections, combiners, acceleration sections with electric and magnetic focusing, beam compression and bending sections, and a system to focus the beams onto the target. We are currently assembling or performing experiments to address the physics of all these subsystems. This paper will discuss experiments in injection, combining, and bending

Evidence of joint commitment in great apes’ natural joint actions

Human joint action seems special, as it is grounded in joint commitment—a sense of mutual obligation participants feel towards each other. Comparative research with humans and non-human great apes has typically investigated joint commitment by experimentally interrupting joint actions to study subjects’ resumption strategies. However, such experimental interruptions are human-induced, and thus the question remains of how great apes naturally handle interruptions. Here, we focus on naturally occurring interruptions of joint actions, grooming and play, in bonobos and chimpanzees. Similar to humans, both species frequently resumed interrupted joint actions (and the previous behaviours, like grooming the same body part region or playing the same play type) with their previous partners and at the previous location. Yet, the probability of resumption attempts was unaffected by social bonds or rank. Our data suggest that great apes experience something akin to joint commitment, for which we discuss possible evolutionary origins

Intergenerational Support and Marital Satisfaction: Implications of Beliefs About Helping Aging Parents

Everyday support given to aging parents is a salient aspect of married life that may have implications for marital quality. Among 132 middle‐aged couples drawn from Wave 1 of the Family Exchanges Study, the authors examined the moderating effects of each spouse’s normative and motivational beliefs about helping parents on associations between the frequency of everyday support that wives and husbands gave to their own parents and marital satisfaction. Husbands’ more frequent provision of support was linked to wives’ greater marital satisfaction when reports of personal rewards linked to helping parents were high for wives or low for husbands. Conversely, wives’ more frequent provision of support was linked to husbands’ lower marital satisfaction when reports of filial obligation were low for husbands or high for wives. Findings highlight the interdependence within couples and indicate that both spouses’ perceptions are important in understanding linkages between intergenerational support and marital satisfaction.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135490/1/jomf12334_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135490/2/jomf12334.pd

Direct drive heavy-ion-beam inertial fusion at high coupling efficiency

Issues with coupling efficiency, beam illumination symmetry, and Rayleigh-Taylor instability are discussed for spherical heavy-ion-beam-driven targets with and without hohlraums. Efficient coupling of heavy-ion beams to compress direct-drive inertial fusion targets without hohlraums is found to require ion range increasing several-fold during the drive pulse. One-dimensional implosion calculations using the LASNEX inertial confinement fusion target physics code shows the ion range increasing fourfold during the drive pulse to keep ion energy deposition following closely behind the imploding ablation front, resulting in high coupling efficiencies (shell kinetic energy/incident beam energy of 16% to 18%). Ways to increase beam ion range while mitigating Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities are discussed for future work