An approach that helps break down gender stereotypes: Research and Commentary

Globally, the use of the skin to skin (STS) contact, also known as kangaroo care, has become widely used within neonatal units. Evidence suggests that STS has a number of significant benefits for both premature infants and their parents. Benefits include physiological stabilization of the infant such as improvement of gas exchange and body temperature regulation, and can provide pain relief. STS has also been found to promote the development of human attachment and bonding and facilitates and improves breastfeeding. Despite well researched benefits of STS, little evidence is available on the psychological benefits of STS for parents, in particular fathers

Isomer triggering via nuclear excitation by electron capture

Triggering of long-lived nuclear isomeric states via coupling to the atomic shells in the process of nuclear excitation by electron capture (NEEC) is studied. NEEC occurring in highly-charged ions can excite the isomeric state to a triggering level that subsequently decays to the ground state. We present total cross sections for NEEC isomer triggering considering experimentally confirmed low-lying triggering levels and reaction rates based on realistic experimental parameters in ion storage rings. A comparison with other isomer triggering mechanisms shows that, among these, NEEC is the most efficient.Comment: minor changes - updated to the final version; 4 pages, 1 figur

Characteristics of Primary Care Trusts in financial deficit and surplus - a comparative study in the English NHS

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.Abstract Background Recently the financial status of primary care trusts has come under considerable scrutiny by the government, and financial deficits have been blamed on poor local management of resources. This paper examines the factors that differ between those Primary Care Trusts (PCT) in financial deficit and those in surplus, using readily available data at PCT level. PCTs are the National Health Service organisations in England responsible for improving the health of their population, developing primary and community health services, and commissioning secondary care services. Methods A descriptive comparative study using data from 58 PCTs; 29 in greatest financial surplus and 29 in greatest deficit in the English National Health Service. Results Nearly half the study deficit PCTs (14 out of 29) are in the East of England and of the 29 surplus PCTs, five each are in Birmingham and Black Country Strategic Health Authority (SHA), and Greater Manchester SHA. The median population density of the deficit PCTs is almost seven times lower than that of surplus PCTs (p = 0.004). Surplus PCTs predominantly serve deprived communities. Nearly half the surplus PCTs are 'spearhead' PCTs compared to only one of the deficit PCTs. Percentage population increase by local authority of the PCT showed that on average deficit PCTs had 2.7 times higher change during 1982–2002 (13.37% for deficit and 4.94% for surplus PCTs). Work pressure felt by staff is significantly higher in deficit PCTs, and they also reported working higher amount of extra hours due to work pressures. The proportion of dispensing general practitioners is significantly higher in deficit PCTs 40.5% vs. 12.9% (p = 0.002). Deficit PCTs on average received £123 less per head of registered population compared to surplus PCTs. Conclusion The two groups of PCTs serve two distinct populations with marked differences between the two. Deficit PCTs tend to be in relatively affluent and rural areas. Poor management alone is unlikely to be the cause of deficits, and potential reasons for deficits including rurality and increased demand for health services in more affluent communities need further in-depth studies.Published versio

Virtual outreach: economic evaluation of joint teleconsultations for patients referred by their general practitioner for a specialist opinion

Objectives To test the hypotheses that, compared with conventional outpatient consultations, joint teleconsultation (virtual outreach) would incur no increased costs to the NHS, reduce costs to patients, and reduce absences from work by patients and their carers.Design Cost consequences study alongside randomised controlled trial.Setting Two hospitals in London and Shrewsbury and 29 general practices in inner London and Wales.Participants 3170 patients identified; 2094 eligible for inclusion and willing to participate. 1051 randomised to virtual outreach and 1043 to standard outpatient appointments.Main outcome measures NHS costs, patient costs, health status (SF-12), time spent attending index consultation, patient satisfaction.Results Overall six month costs were greater for the virtual outreach consultations (pound724 per patient) than for conventional outpatient appointments (pound625): difference in means pound99 ($162; is not an element of138) (95% confidence interval pound10 to pound187, P=0.03). if the analysis is restricted to resource items deemed "attributable" to the index consultation, six month costs were still greater for virtual outreach: difference in means pound108 (pound73 to pound142, P < 0.0001). In both analyses the index consultation accounted for the excess cost. Savings to patients in terms of costs and time occurred in both centres: difference in mean total patient cost 8 pound (5 pound to 10 pound, P < 0.0001). Loss of productive time was less in the virtual outreach group: difference in mean cost pound11 (pound10 to pound12, P < 0.0001).Condusion The main hypothesis that virtual outreach would be cost neutral is rejected, but the hypotheses that costs to patients and losses in productivity would be lower are supported

A local effect model-based interpolation framework for experimental nanoparticle radiosensitisation data

A local effect model (LEM)-based framework capable of interpolating nanoparticle-enhanced photon-irradiated clonogenic cell survival fraction measurements as a function of nanoparticle concentration was developed and experimentally benchmarked for gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-doped bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) under superficial kilovoltage X-ray irradiation. For three different superficial kilovoltage X-ray spectra, the BAEC survival fraction response was predicted for two different AuNP concentrations and compared to experimental data. The ability of the developed framework to predict the cell survival fraction trends is analysed and discussed. This developed framework is intended to fill in the existing gaps of individual cell line response as a function of NP concentration under photon irradiation and assist the scientific community in planning future pre-clinical trials of high Z nanoparticle-enhanced photon radiotherapy

Evidence for Strong Breit Interaction in Dielectronic Recombination of Highly Charged Heavy Ions

Resonant strengths have been measured for dielectronic recombination of Li-like iodine, holmium, and bismuth using an electron beam ion trap. By observing the atomic number dependence of the state-resolved resonant strength, clear experimental evidence has been obtained that the importance of the generalized Breit interaction (GBI) effect on dielectronic recombination increases as the atomic number increases. In particular, it has been shown that the GBI effect is exceptionally strong for the recombination through the resonant state [1s2s22p1/2]1

Parity nonconservation in electron recombination of multiply charged ions

We discuss a parity nonconserving asymmetry in the cross section of KLL dielectronic recombination of polarized electrons on the hydrogen-like ions with $Z \lesssim 60$. This effect is strongly enhanced because of the near-degeneracy of doubly-excited $2l2l'$ states of opposite parity in He-like ions. For ions with $Z \sim 30$ the asymmetry is of the order of $10^{-9}$. For $Z \approx 48$ a level crossing takes place, leading to the PNC asymmetry of $\pm 5\times 10^{-9}$, which is $10^8$ times greater than the basic strength of the weak interaction in atoms.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures; v.2: sign errors in Eqs.(29-32,38) corrected, figs.4,5 and related discussion change