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Background The transition to parenthood is a critical phase for couples and often relationship relational well-being (i.e., relationship satisfaction) deteriorates. As parents’ relationship well-being is a significant predictor of children’s well-being, this decrease is also critical for children. Thus, strengthening couples during the transition to parenthood seems particularly important. Different intervention programmes targeting the transition to parenthood reported positive effects on relationship satisfaction, communication and child adjustment. This study protocol describes a randomized controlled trial for two couple-focused interventions, targeting the enhancement of partners’ relational skills (communication, dyadic coping, problem-solving, self-regulation in relationships) with the aim to improve relational well-being, partners’ well-being, coparenting and, consequently, foster healthy child development.Methods/design We randomly assigned mixed-sex couples to a high or low dose intervention or a waiting list control condition. The high dose intervention consists of a training of relational skills, whereas in the low dose condition participants receive a psychoeducational movie. Outcomes are assessed over 11 time points from the third trimester of pregnancy until four years after birth assessing self-report and home observations of couple- and parent-child interactions. Primary outcomes include relational skills, individual and relational well-being and coparenting; a secondary outcome is healthy child development. Statistical analyses include multilevel modelling, structural equation modelling as well as standard statistics.Discussion The aim of this study is to support families with couple-focused interventions and thus improve relational skills, relationship well-being, coparenting, individual well-being, and healthy child development. If the intervention reveals to be effective, we will target a broader dissemination.

Physical review / B covering condensed matter and materials physics 101(6), 064306 (2020). doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.101.064306, We use a symmetry-motivated approach to analyzing x-ray pair distribution functions to study the mechanism of negative thermal expansion in two ReO$_3$-like compounds: ScF$_3$ and CaZrF$_6$. Both average and local structures suggest that it is the flexibility of $M$-F-$M$ linkages (M = Ca, Zr, Sc) due to dynamic rigid and semirigid “scissoring” modes that facilitates the observed negative thermal expansion (NTE) behavior. The amplitudes of these dynamic distortions are greater for CaZrF$_6$ than for ScF$_3$, which corresponds well with the larger magnitude of the thermal expansion reported in the literature for the former. We show that this flexibility is enhanced in CaZrF$_6$ due to the rocksalt ordering mixing the characters of two of these scissoring modes. Additionally, we show that in ScF$_3$ anharmonic coupling between the modes responsible for the structural flexibility and the rigid unit modes contributes to the unusually high NTE behavior in this material., Published by Inst., Woodbury, NY

A periodic survey of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Zurich in 2004 and 2006 revealed a consistently low prevalence of MRSA. SCCmec and ccr typing showed fluctuations in the proportions of SCCmec types and in the carriage of mobile virulence determinants. Together with the presence of variant SCCmecs these findings suggest a high clonal diversity and level of SCCmec recombination. The prevalence of a local "drug clone", associated with low-level methicillin resistance and rapid growth, significantly decreased. This clone had spread among intraveneous drug users, steadily increasing from 1994 to 2001 and was dominant in 2001. Apparently, changes in the management of the Zurich drug scene have restricted the spread of this clone

The central goal of crystal engineering is to control material function via rational design of structure. A particularly successful realisation of this paradigm is hybrid improper ferroelectricity in layered perovskite materials, where layering and cooperative octahedral tilts combine to break inversion symmetry. However, in the parent family of inorganic ABX3 perovskites, symmetry prevents hybrid coupling to polar distortions. Here, we use group-theoretical analysis to uncover a profound enhancement of the number of improper ferroelectric coupling schemes available to molecular perovskites. This enhancement arises because molecular substitution diversifies the range of distortions possible. Not only do our insights rationalise the emergence of polarisation in previously studied materials, but we identify the fundamental importance of molecular degrees of freedom that are straightforwardly controlled from a synthetic viewpoint. We envisage that the crystal design principles we develop here will enable targeted synthesis of a large family of new acentric functional materials.

Malaria control is difficult where there is intense year-round transmission of multiple plasmodium species, such as in Papua New Guinea.Between April 2005 and July 2007, we conducted an open-label, randomized, parallel-group study of conventional chloroquine-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and artesunate-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine, and artemether-lumefantrine in children in Papua New Guinea 0.5 to 5 years of age who had falciparum or vivax malaria. The primary end point was the rate of adequate clinical and parasitologic response at day 42 after the start of treatment with regard to Plasmodium falciparum, after correction for reinfections identified through polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) genotyping of polymorphic loci in parasite DNA. Secondary end points included the rate of adequate clinical and parasitologic response at day 42 with regard to P. vivax without correction through PCR genotyping.Of 2802 febrile children screened, 482 with falciparum malaria and 195 with vivax malaria were included. The highest rate of adequate clinical and parasitologic response for P. falciparum was in the artemether-lumefantrine group (95.2%), as compared with 81.5% in the chloroquine-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine group (P=0.003), 85.4% in the artesunate-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine group (P=0.02), and 88.0% in the dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine group (P=0.06). The rate of adequate clinical and parasitologic response for P. vivax in the dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine group (69.4%) was more than twice that in each of the other three treatment groups. The in vitro chloroquine and piperaquine levels that inhibited growth of local P. falciparum isolates by 50% correlated significantly (P0.001). Rash occurred more often with artesunate-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine than with chloroquine-sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (P=0.004 for both comparisons).The most effective regimens were artemether-lumefantrine against P. falciparum and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine against P. vivax. The relatively high rate of treatment failure with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine against P. falciparum may reflect cross-resistance between chloroquine and piperaquine. (Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry number, ACTRN12605000550606.)

We report hard (14 keV) x-ray diffraction measurements on three compositions (x=0.11,0.12,0.13) of the high-temperature superconductor La2−xSrxCuO4. All samples show charge density wave (CDW) order with onset temperatures in the range 51–80 K and ordering wave vectors close to (0.23,0,0.5). The CDW is strongest with the longest in-plane correlation length near 1/8 doping. On entering the superconducting state the CDW is suppressed, demonstrating the strong competition between the charge order and superconductivity. CDW order coexists with incommensurate magnetic order and the wave vectors of the two modulations have the simple relationship δcharge=2δspin. The intensity of the CDW Bragg peak tracks the intensity of the low-energy (quasielastic) spin fluctuations. We present a phase diagram of La2−xSrxCuO4 including the pseudogap phase, CDW, and magnetic order.

International audience; We show that the valence electrons of Ba3NaRu2O9, which has a quasimolecular structure, completely crystallize below 210 K. Using an extended Hubbard model, we show that the charge ordering instability results from long-range Coulomb interactions. However, orbital ordering, metal-metal bonding, and formation of a partial spin gap enforce the magnitude of the charge separation. The striped charge order and frustrated hcp lattice of Ru2O9 dimers lead to competition with a quasidegenerate charge-melted phase under photoexcitation at low temperature. Our results establish a broad class of simple metal oxides as models for emergent phenomena at the border between the molecular and solid states.