Country-wise differences in perception of health-related messages in cereal-based food products

The objective of the present study was to explore the impact of health-related messages on the perceived overall healthiness and consumers' likelihood to buy cereal-based products or non-cereal products containing beneficial compounds from grains, across four European countries. The data were collected from a sample of 2392 members of the public in Finland, Germany, Italy and the UK. The results from a conjoint task with a main effects additive model were reported. In general, the presence of a verbal health claim on foods had positive influence on respondents perception of healthiness and on likelihood to buy the products, whereas the pictorial health claims were found to have a weak influence on the two dependent variables. However, the findings showed that health-related information on food labels differently influenced the healthiness perception and the likelihood to buy the product across the four countries, suggesting that different cultures, traditions, and eating habits have to be taken into account before positioning cereal-based products containing beneficial compounds from grains on the market. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High-speed knots in the hourglass shaped planetary nebula Hubble 12

We present a detailed kinematical analysis of the young compact hourglass-shaped planetary nebula Hb 12. We performed optical imaging and long-slit spectroscopy of Hb 12 using the Manchester echelle spectrometer with the 2.1-m San Pedro Mártir telescope. We reveal, for the first time, the presence of end caps (or knots) aligned with the bipolar lobes of the planetary nebula shell in a deep [NII] ?6584 image of Hb 12. We measured from our spectroscopy radial velocities of ~120kms-1 for these knots. We have derived the inclination angle of the hourglass-shaped nebular shell to be ~65° to the line of sight. It has been suggested that Hb 12's central star system is an eclipsing binary which would imply a binary inclination of at least 80°. However, if the central binary has been the major shaping influence on the nebula, then both nebula and binary would be expected to share a common inclination angle. Finally, we report the discovery of high-velocity knots with Hubble-type velocities, close to the core of Hb 12, observed in Ha and oriented in the same direction as the end caps. Very different velocities and kinematical ages were calculated for the outer and inner knots showing that they may originate from different outburst events.

Age and sex-related differences in automaticity for mental addition

With age, children process information more rapidly, thus increasing access to and retrieval of information from memory. This speed of information processing is often explained in terms of automaticity. The present study explores this suggestion with respect to primary schoolchildren; 173 pupils aged between 7 and 11 years were tested using a chronometric paradigm. Analysis indicated a highly significant maturational trend towards greater automaticity across all age-groups. However, the results failed to provide evidence for sex differences in automaticity, nor was there evidence of an interaction between age and sex.

Many-body theory calculations of positron binding to negative ions

A many-body theory approach developed by the authors [Phys. Rev. A 70, 032720 (2004)] is applied to positron bound states and annihilation rates in atomic systems. Within the formalism, full account of virtual positronium (Ps) formation is made by summing the electron-positron ladder diagram series, thus enabling the theory to include all important many-body correlation effects in the positron problem. Numerical calculations have been performed for positron bound states with the hydrogen and halogen negative ions, also known as Ps hydride and Ps halides. The Ps binding energies of 1.118, 2.718, 2.245, 1.873 and 1.393 eV and annihilation rates of 2.544, 2.482, 1.984, 1.913 and 1.809 ns^{-1}, have been obtained for PsH, PsF, PsCl, PsBr and PsI, respectively.

Six ways to leave unemployment

This paper uses a unique Portuguese dataset to examine the effect of access to unemployment benefits (UBs) and their maximum potential duration on escape rates from unemployment. In examining the time profile of transitions out of unemployment, the principal contributions of the paper are twofold. First, it provides a detailed state space of potential outcomes: open-ended employment, fixed-term contracts, part-time work, government-provided jobs, self employment, and labour force withdrawal. Second, it is able to exploit major exogenous discontinuities in the maximum duration of unemployment benefits to identify disincentive effects. While confirming strong disincentive effects, it is shown that use of an aggregate hazard function regression model compounds very different and even contradictory effects of the determinants of unemployment.

Dramaturgy in the Network

This article addresses challenges and opportunities posed by the design and production of network performance from the point of view of collaborative creative work. It examines strategies that, while referring to the network as a new medium for performance, make use of concepts from dramaturgy to better understand the relationships between artists, audiences and media. The author characterises three distinct models for dramaturgy, particularly from the point of view of collaboration, authorship, presence and environment.

A hypercyclic finite rank perturbation of a unitary operator

A unitary operator V and a rank 2 operator R acting on a Hilbert space H are constructed such that V + R is hypercyclic. This answers affirmatively a question of Salas whether a finite rank perturbation of a hyponormal operator can be supercyclic.

An efficient neural network approach for nanoscale FinFET modelling and circuit simulation

The present paper demonstrates the suitability of artificial neural network (ANN) for modelling of a FinFET in nano-circuit simulation. The FinFET used in this work is designed using careful engineering of source-drain extension, which simultaneously improves maximum frequency of oscillation f(max) because of lower gate to drain capacitance, and intrinsic gain A(V0) = g(m)/g(ds), due to lower output conductance g(ds). The framework for the ANN-based FinFET model is a common source equivalent circuit, where the dependence of intrinsic capacitances, resistances and dc drain current I-d on drain-source V-ds and gate-source V-gs is derived by a simple two-layered neural network architecture. All extrinsic components of the FinFET model are treated as bias independent. The model was implemented in a circuit simulator and verified by its ability to generate accurate response to excitations not used during training. The model was used to design a low-noise amplifier. At low power (J(ds) similar to 10 mu A/mu m) improvement was observed in both third-order-intercept IIP3 (similar to 10 dBm) and intrinsic gain A(V0) (similar to 20 dB), compared to a comparable bulk MOSFET with similar effective channel length. This is attributed to higher ratio of first-order to third-order derivative of I-d with respect to gate voltage and lower g(ds), in FinFET compared to bulk MOSFET. Copyright (C) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Patterns of hospitalisation before and following initiation of haemodialysis: a 5 year single centre study

Background: The utilisation of healthcare resources by prevalent haemodialysis patients has been robustly evaluated with regard to the provision of outpatient haemodialysis; however, the impact of hospitalisation among such patients is poorly defined. Minimal information is available in the UK to estimate the health and economic burden associated with the inpatient management of prevalent haemodialysis patients. The aim of this study was to assess the pattern of hospitalisation among a cohort of haemodialysis patients, before and following their initiation of haemodialysis. In addition the study sought to assess the impact of their admissions on bed occupancy in a large tertiary referral hospital in a single region in the UK.

Methods: All admission episodes were reviewed and those receiving dialysis with the Belfast City Hospital Programme were identified over a 5 year period from January 2001 to December 2005. This tertiary referral centre provides dialysis services for a population of approximately 700?000 and additional specialist renal services for the remainder of Northern Ireland. The frequency and duration of hospitalisation, and contribution to bed day occupancy of haemodialysis patients, was determined and compared to other common conditions which are known to be associated with high bed occupancy. In addition, the pattern and timing of admissions in dialysis patients in relation to their dialysis initiation date was assessed.

Results: Over the 5 year study period, 798 haemodialysis patients were admitted a total of 2882 times. These accounted for 2.5% of all admissions episodes; the median number of admissions for these patients was 3 (2–5) which compared with 1 (1–2) for non-dialysis patients. The majority of first hospitalisations (54%) were within 100 days before or after commencement of maintenance dialysis therapy. In all clinical specialties the median length of stay for haemodialysis patients was significantly longer than for patients not on haemodialysis (p=0.004). In multivariate analysis with adjustment for age, gender, and other clinically relevant diagnostic codes, maintenance haemodialysis patients stayed on average 3.75 times longer than other patient groups (ratio of geometric means 3.75, IQR 3.46–4.06).

Conclusions: Maintenance haemodialysis therapy is an important risk factor for prolonged hospitalisation regardless of the primary reason for admission. Such patients require admission more frequently than the general hospital population, particularly within 100 days before and after initiation of their first dialysis treatment.

Timing movements to interval durations specified by discrete or continuous sounds

Understanding how the timing of motor output is coupled to sensory temporal information is largely based on synchronisation of movements through small motion gaps (finger taps) to mostly empty sensory intervals (discrete beats). This study investigated synchronisation of movements between target barriers over larger motion gaps when closing time gaps of intervals were presented as either continuous, dynamic sounds, or discrete beats. Results showed that although synchronisation errors were smaller for discrete sounds, the variability of errors was lower for continuous sounds. Furthermore, finger movement between targets was found to be more sinusoidal when continuous sensory information was presented during intervals compared to discrete. When movements were made over larger amplitudes, synchronisation errors tended to be more positive and movements between barriers more sinusoidal, than for movements over shorter amplitudes. These results show that the temporal control of movement is not independent from the form of the sensory information that specifies time gaps or the magnitude of the movement required for synchronisation.