Twelve tips for conducting a virtual OSCE

Recently many medical schools have faced the challenge of redesigning their existing assessments to run in a virtual format. We ran a virtual Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for a group of final year students assessing clinical communication skills, written communication, practical skills, examination skills and professionalism. OSCEs provide the opportunity to test skills that written papers cannot, so it was important to include such a clinical exam in the portfolio of assessments for graduating students. The virtual OSCE ran smoothly and was successful at discriminating between candidates. In this article, we share twelve practical tips from our experience and the small body of literature on how to successfully design and deliver a virtual OSCE. This format provides an opportunity to run similar assessments in the future if remote assessments or assessments of telemedicine skills are required

Detection of ionized gas in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae

We report the detection of ionized intracluster gas in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Pulsars in this cluster with a negative period derivative, which must lie in the distant half of the cluster, have significantly higher measured integrated electron column densities than the pulsars with a positive period derivative. We derive the plasma density within the central few pc of the cluster using two different methods which yield consistent values. Our best estimate of n_e = (0.067+-0.015)/cm^3 is about 100 times the free electron density of the ISM in the vicinity of 47 Tucanae, and the ionized gas is probably the dominant component of the intracluster medium.Comment: 5 pages, 3 included figures, accepted for publication by ApJ Letter

Calibration of <i>Herschel</i> SPIRE FTS observations at different spectral resolutions

The SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer on-board the Herschel Space Observatory had two standard spectral resolution modes for science observations: high resolution (HR) and low resolution (LR), which could also be performed in sequence (H+LR). A comparison of the HR and LR resolution spectra taken in this sequential mode revealed a systematic discrepancy in the continuum level. Analysing the data at different stages during standard pipeline processing demonstrates that the telescope and instrument emission affect HR and H+LR observations in a systematically different way. The origin of this difference is found to lie in the variation of both the telescope and instrument response functions, while it is triggered by fast variation of the instrument temperatures. As it is not possible to trace the evolution of the response functions using housekeeping data from the instrument subsystems, the calibration cannot be corrected analytically. Therefore, an empirical correction for LR spectra has been developed, which removes the systematic noise introduced by the variation of the response functions

Correcting the extended-source calibration for the <i>Herschel</i>-SPIRE Fourier-transform spectrometer

We describe an update to the Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) Fourier-transform spectrometer (FTS) calibration for extended sources, which incorporates a correction for the frequency-dependent far-field feedhorn efficiency, ηff. This significant correction affects all FTS extended-source calibrated spectra in sparse or mapping mode, regardless of the spectral resolution. Line fluxes and continuum levels are underestimated by factors of 1.3–2 in thespectrometer long wavelength band (447–1018 GHz; 671–294 μm) and 1.4–1.5 in the spectrometer short wavelength band (944–1568 GHz; 318–191 μm). The correction was implemented in the FTS pipeline version 14.1 and has also been described in the SPIRE Handbook since 2017 February. Studies based on extended-source calibrated spectra produced prior to this pipeline version should be critically reconsidered using the current products available in the Herschel Science Archive. Once the extended-source calibrated spectra are corrected for ηff, the synthetic photometry and the broad-band intensities from SPIRE photometer maps agree within 2–4 per cent – similar levels to the comparison of point-source calibrated spectra and photometry from point-source calibrated maps. The two calibration schemes for the FTS are now self-consistent: the conversion between the corrected extended-source and point-source calibrated spectra can be achieved with the beam solid angle and a gain correction that accounts for the diffraction loss

Calibration of the Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer

The Herschel SPIRE instrument consists of an imaging photometric camera and an imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), both operating over a frequency range of 450-1550 GHz. In this paper, we briefly review the FTS design, operation, and data reduction, and describe in detail the approach taken to relative calibration (removal of instrument signatures) and absolute calibration against standard astronomical sources. The calibration scheme assumes a spatially extended source and uses the Herschel telescope as primary calibrator. Conversion from extended to point-source calibration is carried out using observations of the planet Uranus. The model of the telescope emission is shown to be accurate to within 6% and repeatable to better than 0.06% and, by comparison with models of Mars and Neptune, the Uranus model is shown to be accurate to within 3%. Multiple observations of a number of point-like sources show that the repeatability of the calibration is better than 1%, if the effects of the satellite absolute pointing error (APE) are corrected. The satellite APE leads to a decrement in the derived flux, which can be up to ~10% (1 sigma) at the high-frequency end of the SPIRE range in the first part of the mission, and ~4% after Herschel operational day 1011. The lower frequency range of the SPIRE band is unaffected by this pointing error due to the larger beam size. Overall, for well-pointed, point-like sources, the absolute flux calibration is better than 6%, and for extended sources where mapping is required it is better than 7%.Comment: 20 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Carbon Monoxide in the Cold Debris of Supernova 1987A

We report spectroscopic and imaging observations of rotational transitions of cold CO and SiO in the ejecta of SN1987A, the first such emission detected in a supernova remnant. In addition to line luminosities for the CO J=1-0, 2-1, 6-5, and 7-6 transitions, we present upper limits for all other transitions up to J=13-12, collectively measured from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX), and the Herschel Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE). Simple models show the lines are emitted from at least 0.01 solar masses of CO at a temperature > 14 K, confined within at most 35% of a spherical volume expanding at ~ 2000 km/s. Moreover, we locate the emission within 1'' of the central debris. These observations, along with a partial observation of SiO, confirm the presence of cold molecular gas within supernova remnants and provide insight into the physical conditions and chemical processes in the ejecta. Furthermore, we demonstrate the powerful new window into supernova ejecta offered by submillimeter observations.Comment: Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters, 6 pages, 3 figure

Herschel-ATLAS/GAMA: A difference between star formation rates in strong-line and weak-line radio galaxies

We have constructed a sample of radio-loud objects with optical spectroscopy from the Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) project over the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (Herschel-ATLAS) Phase 1 fields. Classifying the radio sources in terms of their optical spectra, we find that strong-emission-line sources ('high-excitation radio galaxies') have, on average, a factor of ~4 higher 250-μm Herschel luminosity than weak-line ('lowexcitation') radio galaxies and are also more luminous than magnitude-matched radio-quiet galaxies at the same redshift. Using all five H-ATLAS bands, we show that this difference in luminosity between the emission-line classes arises mostly from a difference in the average dust temperature; strong-emission-line sources tend to have comparable dust masses to, but higher dust temperatures than, radio galaxies with weak emission lines. We interpret this as showing that radio galaxies with strong nuclear emission lines are much more likely to be associated with star formation in their host galaxy, although there is certainly not a one-to-one relationship between star formation and strong-line active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity. The strong-line sources are estimated to have star formation rates at least a factor of 3-4 higher than those in the weak-line objects. Our conclusion is consistent with earlier work, generally carried out using much smaller samples, and reinforces the general picture of high-excitation radio galaxies as being located in lower-mass, less evolved host galaxies than their low-excitation counterparts.Peer reviewe

Systematic characterisation of the Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer

A systematic programme of calibration observations was carried out to monitor the performance of the SPIRE FTS instrument on board the Herschel Space Observatory. Observations of planets (including the prime point-source calibrator, Uranus), asteroids, line sources, dark sky, and cross-calibration sources were made in order to monitor repeatability and sensitivity, and to improve FTS calibration. We present a complete analysis of the full set of calibration observations and use them to assess the performance of the FTS. Particular care is taken to understand and separate out the effect of pointing uncertainties, including the position of the internal beam steering mirror for sparse observations in the early part of the mission. The repeatability of spectral line centre positions is <5km/s, for lines with signal-to-noise ratios >40, corresponding to <0.5-2.0% of a resolution element. For spectral line flux, the repeatability is better than 6%, which improves to 1-2% for spectra corrected for pointing offsets. The continuum repeatability is 4.4% for the SLW band and 13.6% for the SSW band, which reduces to ~1% once the data have been corrected for pointing offsets. Observations of dark sky were used to assess the sensitivity and the systematic offset in the continuum, both of which were found to be consistent across the FTS detector arrays. The average point-source calibrated sensitivity for the centre detectors is 0.20 and 0.21 Jy [1 sigma; 1 hour], for SLW and SSW. The average continuum offset is 0.40 Jy for the SLW band and 0.28 Jy for the SSW band.Comment: 41 pages, 37 figures, 32 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA