Special Section: Archaeology in Scotland.

(15 papers edited).

Introduction to Special Section on Education in Archaeology

Malone, C.A.T. Introduction (with Stone and Baxter) to Special Section Education and Archaeology (19 papers).

Introduction to Special Section on Heritage and Archaeology in Far East Asia

Malone, C.A.T. Introduction. Heritage and Archaeology in the Far East (with Simon Kaner) Antiquity

Introduction to Special Section on Rice Domestication

Malone, C.A.T. Introduction. Special Section of Rice Domestication.

Introduction Special Section on David Clarke's Archaeology: the Loss of Innocence 25 years after:with Simon Stoddart

Malone, C.A.T. and S.K.F. Stoddart, Special Section. Introduction. David Clarke's 'Archaeology: the loss of Innocence' (1973) 25 years after.

Neonatal intensive care and late preterm infants:Health and family functioning at three years

Background: Late preterm infants (LPIs), born at 34 + 0 to 36 + 6 weeks of gestation contribute a significant proportion of all neonatal intensive care (NIC) admissions and are regarded as being at risk of adverse outcomes compared to term-born infants.

Aim: To explore the health outcomes and family functioning of LPIs who required neonatal intensive care, at three years of age.

Study design and subjects: This cohort study included 225 children born late preterm, between 1 January and 31 December 2006 in Northern Ireland. Children admitted for NIC (study group, n = 103) were compared with children who did not require NIC or who required special care only for up to three days (comparison group, n = 122).

Outcome measures
Health outcomes were measured using the Health Status Questionnaire, health service usage by parent report and family functioning using the PedsQL™ Family Impact Module.

Results: LPIs who required NIC revealed similar health outcomes at three years in comparison to those who did not. Despite this, more parents of LPIs who required NIC reported visiting their GP and medical specialists during their child's third year of life. Differences in family functioning were also observed with mothers of LPIs who required NIC reporting, significantly lower levels of social and physical functioning, increased difficulties with communication and increased levels of worry.

Conclusions: LPIs were observed to have similar health outcomes at three years of age regardless of NIC requirement. The increase in GP and medical specialist visits and family functioning difficulties observed among those infants who required NIC merits further investigation.

Abbreviations: LPI, late preterm infant; NIC, neonatal intensive care; HSQ, Health Status Questionnaire; GP, general practitioner

Effect of geosynthetic reinforcement creep on the long term performance of an embankment

Geo-synthetic reinforcements are often used to enhance the stability of geotechnical structures such as embankments. These geosynthetic polymers often show significant creep deformational behaviour. In the short-term performance of a geotechnical structure, it may not play a significant role. However, while dealing with the long term behaviour, it is necessary to investigate its effect. In this paper two plane strain fully coupled finite element analysis have been conducted; one with and the other without taking into account of the creep behaviour of geosynthetics. A well documented field case of Leneghans embankment (Geogrid improved wide embankment constructed near Sydney, Australia in 1990s) have been used for this purpose. It is evident from the analyses that though the geosynthetic reinforcements may play a vital role in the performance/stability of an embankment in the early days (during and after construction), its contribution may become insignificant with time and the creep of geo-synthetic may not play a significant role in the long term stability. © 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.