The Large Magellanic Cloud and the Distance Scale

The Magellanic Clouds, especially the Large Magellanic Cloud, are places where multiple distance indicators can be compared with each other in a straight-forward manner at considerable precision. We here review the distances derived from Cepheids, Red Variables, RR Lyraes, Red Clump Stars and Eclipsing Binaries, and show that the results from these distance indicators generally agree to within their errors, and the distance modulus to the Large Magellanic Cloud appears to be defined to 3% with a mean value of 18.48 mag, corresponding to 49.7 Kpc. The utility of the Magellanic Clouds in constructing and testing the distance scale will remain as we move into the era of Gaia.Comment: 23 pages, accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science. From a presentation at the conference The Fundamental Cosmic Distance Scale: State of the Art and the Gaia Perspective, Naples, May 201

Horizontal Branch Stars: The Interplay between Observations and Theory, and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy

We review HB stars in a broad astrophysical context, including both variable and non-variable stars. A reassessment of the Oosterhoff dichotomy is presented, which provides unprecedented detail regarding its origin and systematics. We show that the Oosterhoff dichotomy and the distribution of globular clusters (GCs) in the HB morphology-metallicity plane both exclude, with high statistical significance, the possibility that the Galactic halo may have formed from the accretion of dwarf galaxies resembling present-day Milky Way satellites such as Fornax, Sagittarius, and the LMC. A rediscussion of the second-parameter problem is presented. A technique is proposed to estimate the HB types of extragalactic GCs on the basis of integrated far-UV photometry. The relationship between the absolute V magnitude of the HB at the RR Lyrae level and metallicity, as obtained on the basis of trigonometric parallax measurements for the star RR Lyrae, is also revisited, giving a distance modulus to the LMC of (m-M)_0 = 18.44+/-0.11. RR Lyrae period change rates are studied. Finally, the conductive opacities used in evolutionary calculations of low-mass stars are investigated. [ABRIDGED]Comment: 56 pages, 22 figures. Invited review, to appear in Astrophysics and Space Scienc

Global surveillance of cancer survival 1995-2009: analysis of individual data for 25,676,887 patients from 279 population-based registries in 67 countries (CONCORD-2)

BACKGROUND: Worldwide data for cancer survival are scarce. We aimed to initiate worldwide surveillance of cancer survival by central analysis of population-based registry data, as a metric of the effectiveness of health systems, and to inform global policy on cancer control. METHODS: Individual tumour records were submitted by 279 population-based cancer registries in 67 countries for 25·7 million adults (age 15-99 years) and 75,000 children (age 0-14 years) diagnosed with cancer during 1995-2009 and followed up to Dec 31, 2009, or later. We looked at cancers of the stomach, colon, rectum, liver, lung, breast (women), cervix, ovary, and prostate in adults, and adult and childhood leukaemia. Standardised quality control procedures were applied; errors were corrected by the registry concerned. We estimated 5-year net survival, adjusted for background mortality in every country or region by age (single year), sex, and calendar year, and by race or ethnic origin in some countries. Estimates were age-standardised with the International Cancer Survival Standard weights. FINDINGS: 5-year survival from colon, rectal, and breast cancers has increased steadily in most developed countries. For patients diagnosed during 2005-09, survival for colon and rectal cancer reached 60% or more in 22 countries around the world; for breast cancer, 5-year survival rose to 85% or higher in 17 countries worldwide. Liver and lung cancer remain lethal in all nations: for both cancers, 5-year survival is below 20% everywhere in Europe, in the range 15-19% in North America, and as low as 7-9% in Mongolia and Thailand. Striking rises in 5-year survival from prostate cancer have occurred in many countries: survival rose by 10-20% between 1995-99 and 2005-09 in 22 countries in South America, Asia, and Europe, but survival still varies widely around the world, from less than 60% in Bulgaria and Thailand to 95% or more in Brazil, Puerto Rico, and the USA. For cervical cancer, national estimates of 5-year survival range from less than 50% to more than 70%; regional variations are much wider, and improvements between 1995-99 and 2005-09 have generally been slight. For women diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005-09, 5-year survival was 40% or higher only in Ecuador, the USA, and 17 countries in Asia and Europe. 5-year survival for stomach cancer in 2005-09 was high (54-58%) in Japan and South Korea, compared with less than 40% in other countries. By contrast, 5-year survival from adult leukaemia in Japan and South Korea (18-23%) is lower than in most other countries. 5-year survival from childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is less than 60% in several countries, but as high as 90% in Canada and four European countries, which suggests major deficiencies in the management of a largely curable disease. INTERPRETATION: International comparison of survival trends reveals very wide differences that are likely to be attributable to differences in access to early diagnosis and optimum treatment. Continuous worldwide surveillance of cancer survival should become an indispensable source of information for cancer patients and researchers and a stimulus for politicians to improve health policy and health-care systems

Normal stresses in elastic networks

When loaded in simple shear deformation, polymeric materials may develop so-called normal stresses: stresses perpendicular to the direction of the applied shear. These normal stresses are intrinsically nonlinear: basic symmetry considerations dictate they may only enter at O(¿ 2 ) , with ¿ the dimensionless shear strain. There is no fundamental restriction on their sign, and normal stresses may be positive (pushing outward) or negative (pulling inward). Most materials tend to dilate in the normal direction, but a wide variety of biopolymer networks including fibrin and actin gels have been reported to present anomalously large, negative normal stresses—a feature which has been ascribed to the intrinsic elastic nonlinearity of semiflexible fibers. In this work, we present analytical results on a model nonlinear network, which we expand to the required nonlinear order to show that due to geometric, rather than elastic, nonlinearities (negative) normal stresses generically arise in filamentous networks—even in networks composed of linear, Hookean springs. We investigate analytically and numerically how the subsequent addition of elastic nonlinearities, nonaffine deformations, and filament persistence through cross-linkers augment this basic behavio

An improved non-affine Arruda-Boyce type constitutive model for collagen networks

This work investigates, by means of computational modeling, the mechanical properties of soft collagen tissues on the basis of elasticity theory. Bio-polymer networks are structurally disordered and thus compelled to deform non-affine. To capture that in our computational modeling, we supplement the well-known affine Arruda-Boyce model with positional disorder and compute the resultant changes in mechanical response. We characterize this mechanical behavior as a response to various homogeneous deformations in 3D networks, assuming different constitutive behavior for the individual fibers (in the small deformations linear regime, hookean springs under the entropic elasticity assumption, and in the nonlinear regime freely-jointed and worm-like chains), as well as different coordination numbers (4, 6 or 8 chains connecting at each cross linking point) of the resulting fiber networks. Furthermore we compare the moduli of the simulated networks with their affine deformed counterparts. Previous work has clearly demonstrated that non-affine deformation modes in elastic (bio)polymer networks greatly affect their mechanics. As the original Arruda-Boyce model can be represented with a particular form of strain-energy function that is micro-mechanically motivated, incorporation of the non-affinity yields amended predictions of the macroscopic mechanical behavior of soft fibrous networks, based on an improved representation of microscopic network structure and deformations. We show that shear and bulk moduli in the Arruda-Boyce model can be as off as 30% when compared with the shear and bulk moduli in the non-affine model. This entire evaluation of the ways non-affinity enhances the well known Arruda-Boyce model sets the groundwork for developing accurate constitutive relations for fibrous biological materials, for use in finite element analysis of soft tissues

Maze design: size and number of choices impact fish performance in cognitive assays

While studies on fish cognition are increasing, consideration of how methodological details influence the ability to detect and measure performance is lagging. Here, in two separate experiments we compared latency to leave the start position, latency to make a decision, levels of participation and success rates (whether fish entered the rewarded chamber as first choice) across different physical designs. Experiments compared fish performance across 1) two sizes of T-mazes, large and standard, and a plus-maze, and 2) open choice arenas with either two or four doors. Fish in T-mazes with longer arms took longer to leave the start chamber and were less likely to participate in a trial than fish in T-mazes with shorter arms. The number of options, or complexity, in a maze significantly impacted success, but did not necessarily impact behavioural measures, and did not impact the number of fish that reached a chamber. Fish in the plus-maze had similar latencies to leave the start box and time to reach any chamber as fish in the same sized T-maze but exhibited lower overall success. Similarly, in an open choice arena, increasing the number of options – doors to potential reward chambers- resulted in lower probability of success. There was an influence of reward position in the choice arena, with rewarded chambers closest to the sides of the arena resulting in lower latencies to enter and higher probability of decision success. Together our results allow us to offer practical suggestions towards optimal maze design for studies of fish cognition