In the prospect of diffractive Higgs production at the LHC collider, we give an extensive study of Higgs boson, dijet, diphoton and dilepton production at hadronic colliders via diffraction at both ...hadron vertices. Our model, based on non-factorizable pomeron exchange, describes well the observed dijet rate observed at Tevatron run I. Taking the absolute normalization from data, our predictions are given for diffractive processes at Tevatron and LHC. Stringent tests of our model and of its parameters using data being taken now at Tevatron run II are suggested. These measurements will also allow to discriminate between various models and finally to give precise predictions on diffractive Higgs boson production cross-section at the LHC.
Vitamin D insufficiency during pregnancy is associated with disturbed skeletal homeostasis during infancy. Our aim was to investigate the influence of adherence to recommendations for vitamin D ...supplement intake of 10 μg per day (400 IU) during pregnancy (mother) and in the first months of life (child) on the occurrence of positional skull deformation of the child at the age of 2 to 4 months. In an observational case–control study, two hundred seventy‐five 2‐ to 4‐month‐old cases with positional skull deformation were compared with 548 matched controls. A questionnaire was used to gather information on background characteristics and vitamin D intake (food, time spent outdoors and supplements). In a multiple variable logistic regression analysis, insufficient vitamin D supplement intake of women during the last trimester of pregnancy adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.86, 95% (CI) 1.27–2.70 and of children during early infancy (aOR 7.15, 95% CI 3.77–13.54) were independently associated with an increased risk of skull deformation during infancy. These associations were evident after adjustment for the associations with skull deformation that were present with younger maternal age and lower maternal education, shorter pregnancy duration, assisted vaginal delivery, male gender and milk formula consumption after birth. Our findings suggest that non‐adherence to recommendations for vitamin D supplement use by pregnant women and infants are associated with a higher risk of positional skull deformation in infants at 2 to 4 months of age. Our study provides an early infant life example of the importance of adequate vitamin D intake during pregnancy and infancy.
Summary
Physical activity (PA) contributes to health throughout life. In particular, young people can benefit from this. Schools can play a key role in providing learning conditions to experience ...meaningful PAs aimed at inspiring students to lifelong PA. In this article, we argue the need for a salutogenic approach in schools focussing on respecting and enhancing adolescents’ agency with regard to their PA. This approach entails listening to adolescents’ perspectives and inviting them to participate in actively designing and carrying out PA as a prerequisite for their inclusive engagement. We unpack the concept of agency by drawing on insights from the Capability Approach. This provides input for the integration of agency in health promoting schools and salutogenic approaches, to enhance PA-related agency. Finally, we outline a research agenda to, eventually, create opportunities for students in schools to expand their PA-related agency.
Lay Summary Physical activity (PA) contributes to health throughout life. Schools can play a key role in fostering meaningful PA experiences to inspire students to lifelong PA. This requires schools to focus on students’ personal aspirations, providing them with the space to develop their autonomy and find opportunities to decide and act upon expanding their agency with respect to the physically active lifestyles they deem meaningful.
Rationale, aims and objectives
In the Netherlands, evidence‐based child abuse prevention (CAP) guidelines have been developed to support child health care professionals (CHPs) in recognizing and ...responding to suspected child abuse. The aim of this study was to identify factors related to characteristics of the guidelines, the user, the organization and the socio‐political context that facilitate or impede adherence to the CAP guidelines.
Methods
Three semi‐structured focus groups including 14 CHPs working in one large Dutch child health care organization were conducted in January and February 2012. Participants were asked questions about the dissemination of the guidelines, adherence to their key recommendations and factors that impeded or facilitated desired working practices. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Impeding and facilitating factors were identified and classified. An innovation framework was used to guide the research.
Results
CHPs mentioned 24 factors that facilitated or impeded adherence to the CAP guidelines. Most of these factors were related to characteristics of the user. Familiarity with the content of the guidelines, a supportive working environment and good inter‐agency cooperation were identified as facilitating factors. Impeding factors included lack of willingness of caregivers to cooperate, low self‐efficacy and poor inter‐agency cooperation.
Conclusions
The results indicate that a broad variety of factors may influence CHPs' (non‐)adherence to the CAP guidelines. Efforts to improve implementation of the guidelines should focus on improving familiarity with their contents, enhancing self‐efficacy, promoting intra‐agency cooperation, supporting professionals in dealing with uncooperative parents and improving inter‐agency cooperation. Recommendations for future research are provided.
Parental perception of weight status and weight-related behaviour of their toddler was determined through a questionnaire survey in child health care centres (CHCs). Complete data on weight, length, ...sex and age were available for 635 of 682 children (93.1%). The median age of the children was 37.0 months (range 24–56 months). Of all 635 children, 76.5% were normal weight, 16.2% underweight and 7.2% overweight. Parents’ perception of the weight of their child compared with their peers was moderately related to the actual weight status. Of the parents of overweight and underweight children, 87.0% and 89.3%, respectively, were not concerned. Only the parents’ perception of the amount of food eaten by their child was significantly related to the weight status. The primary goal of CHC workers should be to create parental awareness in case of their child being overweight or underweight and to support them in accomplishing a healthy lifestyle.
We use a Monte Carlo implementation of recently developed models of double diffraction to assess the sensitivity of the LHC experiments to standard model Higgs bosons produced in exclusive double ...diffraction. The signal is difficult to extract, due to experimental limitations related to the first level trigger, and to contamination by inclusive double diffractive background. Assuming these difficulties can be overcome, the expected signal-to-background ratio is presented as a function of the experimental resolution on the missing mass. With a missing mass resolution of 2 GeV, a signal-to-background ratio of about 0.5 is obtained; a resolution of 1 GeV brings a signal to background ratio of 1. This result is lower than previous estimates, and the discrepancy is explained.
We extend the
POMWIG Monte Carlo generator developed by B. Cox and J. Forshaw, to include new models of central production through inclusive and exclusive double Pomeron exchange in proton–proton ...collisions. Double photon exchange processes are described as well, both in proton–proton and heavy-ion collisions. In all contexts, various models have been implemented, allowing for comparisons and uncertainty evaluation and enabling detailed experimental simulations.
Title of the program:
DPEMC, version
2.4
Catalogue identifier: ADVF
Program summary URL:
http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADVF
Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. Ireland
Computer: any computer with the FORTRAN 77 compiler under the UNIX or Linux operating systems
Operating system: UNIX; Linux
Programming language used: FORTRAN 77
High speed storage required:
<
25
MB
No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 71 399
No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 639 950
Distribution format: tar.gz
Nature of the physical problem: Proton diffraction at hadron colliders can manifest itself in many forms, and a variety of models exist that attempt to describe it A. Bialas, P.V. Landshoff, Phys. Lett. B 256 (1991) 540; A. Bialas, W. Szeremeta, Phys. Lett. B 296 (1992) 191; A. Bialas, R.A. Janik, Z. Phys. C 62 (1994) 487; M. Boonekamp, R. Peschanski, C. Royon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 (2001) 251806; Nucl. Phys. B 669 (2003) 277; R. Enberg, G. Ingelman, A. Kissavos, N. Timneanu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002) 081801; R. Enberg, G. Ingelman, L. Motyka, Phys. Lett. B 524 (2002) 273; R. Enberg, G. Ingelman, N. Timneanu, Phys. Rev. D 67 (2003) 011301; B. Cox, J. Forshaw, Comput. Phys. Comm. 144 (2002) 104; B. Cox, J. Forshaw, B. Heinemann, Phys. Lett. B 540 (2002) 26; V. Khoze, A. Martin, M. Ryskin, Phys. Lett. B 401 (1997) 330; Eur. Phys. J. C 14 (2000) 525; Eur. Phys. J. C 19 (2001) 477; Erratum, Eur. Phys. J. C 20 (2001) 599; Eur. Phys. J. C 23 (2002) 311. This program implements some of the more significant ones, enabling the simulation of central particle production through color singlet exchange between interacting protons or antiprotons.
Method of solution: The Monte Carlo method is used to simulate all elementary
2
→
2
and
2
→
1
processes available in
HERWIG. The color singlet exchanges implemented in
DPEMC are implemented as functions reweighting the photon flux already present in
HERWIG.
Restriction on the complexity of the problem: The program relying extensively on
HERWIG, the limitations are the same as in G. Marchesini, B.R. Webber, G. Abbiendi, I.G. Knowles, M.H. Seymour, L. Stanco, Comput. Phys. Comm. 67 (1992) 465; G. Corcella, I.G. Knowles, G. Marchesini, S. Moretti, K. Odagiri, P. Richardson, M. Seymour, B. Webber, JHEP 0101 (2001) 010.
Typical running time: Approximate times on a 800 MHz Pentium III: 5–20 min per 10 000 unweighted events, depending on the process under consideration.
Ignoring plant diseases misinforms the climate change and food security debate. Diseases are expected not only to cause more severe crop loss in many areas in the world and threaten food security, ...but also to decrease the climate change mitigation capacity of forests, of other natural ecosystems and of producing crops. However, if research, policy and industry join forces to obtain the multidisciplinary knowledge necessary to adapt integrated pest management (IPM) to the changing climate, it is expected that sufficiently resilient cropping systems can be developed in time. This was the main conclusion of the International Conference on Climate Change and Plant Disease Management held in Evora, Portugal, in November 2010.
In The Netherlands, helmet therapy is a commonly used treatment in infants with skull deformation (deformational plagiocephaly or deformational brachycephaly). However, evidence of the effectiveness ...of this treatment remains lacking. The HEADS study (HElmet therapy Assessment in Deformed Skulls) aims to determine the effects and costs of helmet therapy compared to no helmet therapy in infants with moderate to severe skull deformation.
Pragmatic randomised controlled trial (RCT) nested in a cohort study. The cohort study included infants with a positional preference and/or skull deformation at two to four months (first assessment). At 5 months of age, all children were assessed again and infants meeting the criteria for helmet therapy were asked to participate in the RCT. Participants were randomly allocated to either helmet therapy or no helmet therapy. Parents of eligible infants that do not agree with enrolment in the RCT were invited to stay enrolled for follow up in a non-randomisedrandomised controlled trial (nRCT); they were then free to make the decision to start helmet therapy or not. Follow-up assessments took place at 8, 12 and 24 months of age. The main outcome will be head shape at 24 months that is measured using plagiocephalometry. Secondary outcomes will be satisfaction of parents and professionals with the appearance of the child, parental concerns about the future, anxiety level and satisfaction with the treatment, motor development and quality of life of the infant. Finally, compliance and costs will also be determined.
HEADS will be the first study presenting data from an RCT on the effectiveness of helmet therapy. Outcomes will be important for affected children and their parents, health care professionals and future treatment policies. Our findings are likely to influence the reimbursement policies of health insurance companies.Besides these health outcomes, we will be able to address several methodological questions, e.g. do participants in an RCT represent the eligible target population and do outcomes of the RCT differ from outcomes found in the nRCT?
ISRCTN18473161.
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