Narrow bandwidth, low-emittance positron beams from a laser-wakefield accelerator.

The rapid progress that plasma wakefield accelerators are experiencing is now posing the question as to whether they could be included in the design of the next generation of high-energy electron-positron colliders. However, the typical structure of the accelerating wakefields presents challenging complications for positron acceleration. Despite seminal proof-of-principle experiments and theoretical proposals, experimental research in plasma-based acceleration of positrons is currently limited by the scarcity of positron beams suitable to seed a plasma accelerator.

Exploring impairments and allied health professional utilisation in people with myasthenia gravis: A cross-sectional study.

This study aimed to explore how people with myasthenia gravis experience impairments in vision, dizziness, hearing, and fatigue, and how these relate to balance confidence, community participation, and health-related quality of life. Additionally, this study investigated the utilisation and perception of the allied health role in managing these impairments in the Australian context. Visual and hearing impairments, along with fatigue, were found to be correlated with health-related quality of life and community participation to varying degrees, while visual impairment and dizziness were correlated with balance confidence.

Looking back to inform the future: a review of published paramedicine research.

Objective: Paramedicine has evolved in ways that may outpace the science informing these changes. Examining the scholarly pursuits of paramedicine may provide insights into the historical academic focus, which may inform future endeavors and evolution of paramedicine. The objective of this study was to explore the existing discourse in paramedicine research to reflect on the academic pursuits of this community.

Lessons Learned in Implementing an Aging Research Training Program for Underrepresented Minority Students.

This brief report provides an overview of lessons learned through evaluation of the first five years of the NIA-funded South Carolina-Advancing Diversity in Aging Research (SC-ADAR) undergraduate program, whose goal is to increase the number of qualified underrepresented minority (URM) students who pursue scientific graduate studies in programs focusing on medicine, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics and aging. Partnering with five Historically Black Colleges and Universities in South Carolina, we implemented a research training approach that included two consecutive summers of research training in a University of South Carolina faculty laboratory, as part of a comprehensive 24-month research education program. In addition to the mentored research experience in a laboratory, students had coursework in the biology of aging and social gerontology, with additional workshops tailored to emergent student needs including basic academic skills development, work-life management skills, reflective social experiences, and enhanced support in the transition from undergraduate to graduate school.

Conceptual Design of a High-flux Multi-GeV Gamma-ray Spectrometer.

We present here a novel scheme for the high-resolution spectrometry of high-flux gamma-ray beams with energies per photon in the multi-GeV range. The spectrometer relies on the conversion of the gamma-ray photons into electron-positron pairs in a solid foil with high atomic number. The measured electron and positron spectra are then used to reconstruct the spectrum of the gamma-ray beam.

Compassion fatigue in healthcare providers: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Compassion fatigue is recognized as impacting the health and effectiveness of healthcare providers, and consequently, patient care. Compassion fatigue is distinct from "burnout." Reliable measurement tools, such as the Professional Quality of Life scale, have been developed to measure the prevalence, and predict risk of compassion fatigue.

The development of a mental health service within a youth offending team.

Positive performance indicators suggest that young offenders who have previously been reluctant to engage with a generic child and adolescent mental health service are engaging with this service. Additionally, collaborative working between agencies dedicated to meeting the needs of this client group has increased. These outcomes ultimately increase the scope for this group to have their needs addressed in a comprehensive way.

The role of transferrin saturation as a screening test for hereditary haemochromatosis in an Irish population seeking medical care.

Background: Genetic studies have indicated a high prevalence of mutations for hereditary haemochromatosis (HH) in Irish populations. Given the high cost of genetic screening and the ethical implications thereof, we assessed the role of transferrin saturation (TS) as a primary screening test for HH in an Irish population seeking medical care.

Methods: TS and ferritin were measured on 330 consecutive blood specimens received in the laboratory for routine screening.

The effect of a change from conventional cardiac enzymes to troponin I on overall hospital costs in patients with suspected myocardial infarction.

A random sample of patients presenting to this hospital in 1996 and 2000 with chest pain was assessed retrospectively with respect to patient bed stay and associated costs. The laboratory testing protocol had been changed from traditional cardiac markers AST, CK and CKMB, to troponin I, in the intervening period. The average bed stay for patients with chest pain of non-AMI origin was reduced by 2 days, as a result of the change in testing protocol.

Psoriasis, psoriatic arthropathy and relapsing orbital myositis.

Orbital myositis is an inflammatory disorder of the orbital muscles causing orbital pain and restriction of eye movements. Although rare in children, it is most frequently seen after orbital trauma or as a post-infectious process. We describe a child with chronic relapsing psoriasis, juvenile psoriatic arthritis and relapsing bilateral orbital myositis.

Perception of ecological risk to water environments.

This paper examines lay and expert perceptions of the ecological risks associated with a range of human activities that could adversely affect water resource environments. It employs the psychometric paradigm pioneered in characterizing perceptions of human health risks, which involves surveys to obtain judgments from subjects about risk items in terms of several important characteristics of the risks. The paper builds on a previous study that introduced ecological risk perception.

Copper oxide powder as a copper supplement for sheep.

The ability of oral doses of copper oxide powder to raise liver and blood copper concentration was examined in penned sheep given a pelleted diet containing 4 mg of copper per kg dry matter. Merino sheep of similar live weight and liver copper concentration were allocated at random to one of six treatment groups of four sheep each. Treatment groups received nil, 2.

A new form of familial ataxia, deafness, and mental retardation.

Conditions causing familial ataxia, deafness, and developmental delay are considered in the context of describing brothers with a new disorder characterised by these clinical features.

Neurotoxicity in lymphoblastic leukaemia: comparison of oral and intramuscular methotrexate and two doses of radiation.

Serial cranial computed tomograms were carried out in 136 children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who were receiving 24 Gy or 18 Gy of cranial irradiation and continuing treatment with doses of methotrexate given weekly orally or intramuscularly. The findings were correlated with treatment variables, the development of fits, and the intelligence quotient (IQ). Reversible brain shrinkage, attributed to treatment with steroids, was found on 87 of 114 initial scans (76%); 14 showed changes in white matter during treatment (10%), and calcification was found in 13 either during or after treatment (10%).

High density on computed tomography in infantile Krabbe's disease: a case report.

In a child with a compatible clinical presentation and course of illness, Krabbe's disease was proven by white blood-cell galactocerebrosidase estimation in the homozygous range. A CT head scan performed at five months of age revealed symmetrical high density in the thalami, posterior limbs of the internal capsules and corona radiata. It also showed low density in the deep white-matter of the cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres and minor cerebral atrophy.

Neurological aspects of biopterin metabolism.

Plasma total biopterin concentration was measured by bioassay in 59 infants with hyperphenylalaninaemia and in 50 children with developmental regression and or movement disorder with normal plasma phenylalanine concentrations. In infants with raised phenylalanine concentrations plasma biopterin concentrations were significantly raised in proportion to the phenylalanine values. Five patients had plasma biopterin concentrations at the extremes of the range, and of these two had defective biopterin metabolism.

Intracranial calcification in paediatric computed tomography.

An analysis of the computed tomograms of 18000 children examined consecutively form the basis of an assessment of the diagnostic significance of intracranial calcification. The low incidence of physiological calcification in the pineal and choroid of about 2% up to the age of 8 years, but increasing 5-fold by the age of 15 years, is confirmed. Pathological calcification occurred in 1.

Possible manifestation of the dystrophic X chromosome in muscle cultures from carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Multilayer cell clusters have been observed before confluence and before myotube formation in muscle cell cultures derived from open biopsies of 7 of 14 (50%) female carriers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and in a high percentage of other dystrophic cultures. By contrast, this abnormality was seen in only 12 of 204 (6%) muscle biopsies from patients with other neuromuscular disorders. It appears that cluster formation is independent of the amount of connective tissue present in vivo, because histopathological analysis of the carrier biopsies showed increased endomysial connective tissue in only two cases.