The Development of a Reverberation Chamber for the Assessment of Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Energy Absorption in Mice.

In this paper, we present the design, RF-EMF performance, and a comprehensive uncertainty analysis of the reverberation chamber (RC) exposure systems that have been developed for the use of researchers at the University of Wollongong Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory, Australia, for the purpose of investigating the biological effects of RF-EMF in rodents. Initial studies, at 1950 MHz, have focused on investigating thermophysiological effects of RF exposure, and replication studies related to RF-EMF exposure and progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in mice predisposed to AD. The RC exposure system was chosen as it allows relatively unconstrained movement of animals during exposures which can have the beneficial effect of minimizing stress-related, non-RF-induced biological and behavioral changes in the animals.

Characterising core body temperature response of free-moving C57BL/6 mice to 1.95 GHz whole-body radiofrequency-electromagnetic fields.

The present study investigated the core body temperature (CBT) response of free-moving adult male and female C57BL/6 mice, during and following a 2-h exposure to 1.95 GHz RF-EMF within custom-built reverberation chambers, using temperature capsules implanted within the intraperitoneal cavity and data continuously logged and transmitted via radiotelemetry postexposure. Comparing RF-EMF exposures (WBA-SAR of 1.

The impact of dementia education on student paramedics' preparedness to care, knowledge, confidence and attitudes towards dementia: an analytic survey.

Background: Paramedics play a vital role in the emergency healthcare of people living with dementia. People with dementia often have complex needs, posing challenges for paramedics. Paramedics often lack the confidence and skills to assess people with dementia appropriately, and receive little, if any, dementia education.

The role of social networks in the self-management support for young women recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

It is widely acknowledged that social network support plays an important role in the quality of life and illness management of breast cancer survivors. However, the factors and processes that enable and sustain such support are less well understood. This paper reports baseline findings from a prospective UK national cohort of 1,202 women with breast cancer (aged <50 years at diagnosis), recruited before starting treatment, conducted in 2016-2019.

Modifiable pre-treatment factors are associated with quality of life in women with gynaecological cancers at diagnosis and one year later: Results from the HORIZONS UK national cohort study.

Objective: Personalised care requires the identification of modifiable risk factors so that interventions can be implemented rapidly following a gynaecological cancer diagnosis. Our objective was to determine what pre-treatment factors are associated with quality of life (QOL) at baseline (pre-treatment) and 12 months.

Methods: 1222 women with a confirmed diagnosis of endometrial, ovarian, cervical or vulvar cancer from 82 UK NHS hospitals agreed to complete questionnaires at baseline, three and 12 months.

Use of the Quality of Interactions Schedule (QuIS) in assessing negative staff-patient interactions in acute care settings for older people: A content validation study.

Introduction: The Quality of Interactions Schedule (QuIS) is an observational tool to assess the quality of staff-patient interactions in a healthcare context. QuIS is a promising measure for the evaluation of compassionate care, particularly where care is being delivered to patient populations, such as older people, who may be excluded from self-completion data collection methods. This study investigates the content validity of QuIS in identification of negative staff-patient interactions in acute care.

Experimental Evidence for Common Driving Effects in Low-Energy Fission from Sublead to Actinides.

Isotopic distributions of fragments from fission of the neutron-deficient ^{178}Hg nuclide are reported. This experimental observable is obtained for the first time in the region around lead using an innovative approach based on inverse kinematics and the coincidence between the large acceptance magnetic spectrometer VAMOS++ and a new detection arm close to the target. The average fragment N/Z ratio and prompt neutron M_{n} multiplicity are derived and compared with current knowledge from actinide fission.

Association between Quality of Interactions Schedule ratings and care experiences of people with a dementia in general hospital settings: a validation study.

Introduction: Establishing methods to evaluate interactions between hospital staff and patients with a dementia is vital to inform care delivery. This study aimed to assess the validity of Quality of Interactions Schedule (QuIS) ratings in relation to the care experiences of people with a dementia in a general hospital setting.

Methods: Four hundred and ninety face-to-face interactions between staff and patients with a dementia (n = 107) on six medicine for older people wards in a UK National Health Service hospital were observed and rated using QuIS and the Psychological Well-Being in Cognitively Impaired Persons (PWB-CIP) tool.

Low Density In-Medium Effects on Light Clusters from Heavy-Ion Data.

The modification of the ground state properties of light atomic nuclei in the nuclear and stellar medium is addressed, using chemical equilibrium constants evaluated from a new analysis of the intermediate energy heavy-ion (Xe+Sn) collision data measured by the INDRA Collaboration. Three different reactions are considered, mainly differing by the isotopic content of the emission source. The thermodynamic conditions of the data samples are extracted from the measured multiplicities allowing for a parametrization of the in-medium modification, determined with the single hypothesis that the different nuclear species in a given sample correspond to a unique common value for the density of the expanding source.

Defective Interferon Gamma Production by Tumor-Specific CD8 T Cells Is Associated With 5'Methylcytosine-Guanine Hypermethylation of Interferon Gamma Promoter.

Interferon gamma (IFNγ) supports effector responses of CD8 cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and is a surrogate marker for detection of antigen-specific T cells. Here, we show that tumor-specific CTL clones have impaired IFNγ expression and production upon activation. Assessment of the relationship between IFNγ production and the 5'methylcytosine-guanine (CpG) dinucleotide methylation of the IFNγ promoter using bisulfite treatment has shown that IFNγ CTL clones accumulates CpG hypermethylation within the promoter at key transcription factor binding sites (-186 and -54), known to be vital for transcription.

First Direct Measurement of Isotopic Fission-Fragment Yields of ^{239}U.

A direct and complete measurement of isotopic fission-fragment yields of ^{239}U has been performed for the first time. The ^{239}U fissioning system was produced with an average excitation energy of 8.3 MeV in one-neutron transfer reactions between a ^{238}U beam and a ^{9}Be target at Coulomb barrier energies.

Follow-up care after treatment for prostate cancer: evaluation of a supported self-management and remote surveillance programme.

Background: Alternative models of cancer follow-up care are needed to ameliorate pressure on services and better meet survivors' long-term needs. This paper reports an evaluation of a service improvement initiative for the follow-up care of prostate cancer patients based on remote monitoring and supported self-management.

Methods: This multi-centred, historically controlled study compared patient reported outcomes of men experiencing the new Programme with men experiencing a traditional clinic appointment model of follow-up care, who were recruited in the period immediately prior to the introduction of the Programme.

Follow-up care after treatment for prostate cancer: protocol for an evaluation of a nurse-led supported self-management and remote surveillance programme.

Background: As more men survive a diagnosis of prostate cancer, alternative models of follow-up care that address men's enduring unmet needs and are economical to deliver are needed. This paper describes the protocol for an ongoing evaluation of a nurse-led supported self-management and remote surveillance programme implemented within the secondary care setting.

Methods/design: The evaluation is taking place within a real clinical setting, comparing the outcomes of men enrolled in the Programme with the outcomes of a pre-service change cohort of men, using a repeated measures design.

Nuclear multifragmentation time scale and fluctuations of the largest fragment size.

Distributions of the largest fragment charge, Zmax, in multifragmentation reactions around the Fermi energy can be decomposed into a sum of a Gaussian and a Gumbel distribution, whereas at much higher or lower energies one or the other distribution is asymptotically dominant. We demonstrate the same generic behavior for the largest cluster size in critical aggregation models for small systems, in or out of equilibrium, around the critical point. By analogy with the time-dependent irreversible aggregation model, we infer that Zmax distributions are characteristic of the multifragmentation time scale, which is largely determined by the onset of radial expansion in this energy range.

Living into old age with the consequences of breast cancer.

Purpose Of The Research: Breast cancer survival rates are improving with over 60% likely to live 20 years. As 30% diagnoses occur in women over 70 the prevalence of breast cancer survivors living into older age is increasing. The specific needs and experiences of this group have rarely been addressed.

X-ray fluorescence from the element with atomic number Z=120.

An atomic clock based on x-ray fluorescence yields has been used to estimate the mean characteristic time for fusion followed by fission in reactions 238U + 64Ni at 6.6  MeV/A. Inner shell vacancies are created during the collisions in the electronic structure of the possibly formed Z=120 compound nuclei.

New scalings in nuclear fragmentation.

Fragment partitions of fragmenting hot nuclei produced in central and semiperipheral collisions have been compared in the excitation energy region 4-10 MeV per nucleon where radial collective expansion takes place. It is shown that, for a given total excitation energy per nucleon, the amount of radial collective energy fixes the mean fragment multiplicity. It is also shown that, at a given total excitation energy per nucleon, the different properties of fragment partitions are completely determined by the reduced fragment multiplicity (i.

Study of nuclear stopping in central collisions at intermediate energies.

Nuclear stopping has been investigated in central nuclear collisions at intermediate energies by analyzing kinematically complete events recorded with the help of the 4π multidetector INDRA for a large variety of symmetric systems. It is found that the mean isotropy ratio defined as the ratio of transverse to parallel momenta (energies) reaches a minimum near the Fermi energy, saturates or slowly increases depending on the mass of the system as the beam energy increases, and then stays lower than unity, showing that significant stopping is not achieved even for the heavier systems. Close to and above the Fermi energy, experimental data show no effect of the isospin content of the interacting system.

Bimodal behavior of the heaviest fragment distribution in projectile fragmentation.

The charge distribution of the heaviest fragment detected in the decay of quasiprojectiles produced in intermediate energy heavy-ion collisions has been observed to be bimodal. This feature is expected as a generic signal of phase transition in nonextensive systems. In this Letter, we present new analyses of experimental data from Au on Au collisions at 60, 80, and 100 MeV/nucleon showing that bimodality is largely independent of the data selection procedure and of entrance channel effects.

Isotopic dependence of the nuclear caloric curve.

The A/Z dependence of projectile fragmentation at relativistic energies has been studied with the ALADIN forward spectrometer at SIS. A stable beam of (124)Sn and radioactive beams of (124)La and (107)Sn at 600 MeV per nucleon have been used in order to explore a wide range of isotopic compositions. Chemical freeze-out temperatures are found to be nearly invariant with respect to the A/Z of the produced spectator sources, consistent with predictions for expanded systems.

Fission time measurements: a new probe into superheavy element stability.

Reaction mechanism analyses performed with a 4pi detector for the systems 208Pb + Ge, 238U + Ni and 238U + Ge, combined with analyses of the associated reaction time distributions, provide us with evidence for nuclei with Z=120 and 124 living longer than 10(-18) s and arising from highly excited compound nuclei. By contrast, the neutron deficient nuclei with Z=114 possibly formed in 208Pb + Ge reactions have shorter lifetimes, close to or below the sensitivity limit of the experiment.

Evidence for a three-phonon giant resonance state in 40Ca nuclei.

Inelastic scattering of 40Ca on 40Ca at 50 MeV/A has been measured in coincidence with protons at the GANIL facility. The SPEG spectrometer was associated with 240 CsI(Tl) scintillators of the INDRA 4pi array, allowing for the measurement of complete decay events. The missing energy method was applied to these events.

The DNA sequence and biological annotation of human chromosome 1.

The reference sequence for each human chromosome provides the framework for understanding genome function, variation and evolution. Here we report the finished sequence and biological annotation of human chromosome 1. Chromosome 1 is gene-dense, with 3,141 genes and 991 pseudogenes, and many coding sequences overlap.