The Economic Resource Receipt of New Mothers

U.S. federal policies do not provide a universal social safety net of economic support for women during pregnancy or the immediate postpartum period but assume that employment and/or marriage will protect families from poverty. Yet even mothers with considerable human and marital capital may experience disruptions in employment, earnings, and family socioeconomic status postbirth. We use the National Survey of Families and Households to examine the economic resources that mothers with children ages 2 and younger receive postbirth, including employment, spouses, extended family and social network support, and public assistance. Results show that many new mothers receive resources postbirth. Marriage or postbirth employment does not protect new mothers and their families from poverty, but education, race, and the receipt of economic supports from social networks do

Do proxies reflect patients' health concerns about urinary incontinence and gait problems?

BACKGROUND: While falls and urinary incontinence are prevalent among older patients, who sometimes rely on proxies to provide their health information, the validity of proxy reports of concern about falls and urinary incontinence remains unknown. METHODS: Telephone interviews with 43 consecutive patients with falls or fear of falling and/or bothersome urinary incontinence and their proxies chosen by patients as most knowledgeable about their health. The questionnaire included items derived from the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 12 (SF-12), a scale assessing concerns about urinary incontinence (UI), and a measure of fear of falling, the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES). Scores were estimated using items asking the proxy perspective (6 items from the SF-12, 10 items from a UI scale, and all 10 FES items). Proxy and patient scores were compared using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC, one-way model). Variables associated with absolute agreement between patients and proxies were explored. RESULTS: Patients had a mean age of 81 years (range 75–93) and 67% were female while proxies had a mean age of 70 (range 42–87) and 49% were female. ICCs were 0.63 for the SF-12, 0.52 for the UI scale, and 0.29 for the FES. Proxies tended to understate patients' general health and incontinence concern, but overstate patients' concern about falling. Proxies who lived with patients and those who more often see patients more closely reflected patient FES scores compared to those who lived apart or those who saw patients less often. Internal consistency reliability of proxy responses was 0.62 for the SF-12, 0.86 for the I-QOL, and 0.93 for the FES. In addition, construct validity of the proxy FES scale was supported by greater proxy-perceived fear of falling for patients who received medical care after a fall during the past 12 months (p < .05). CONCLUSION: Caution should be exercised when using proxies as a source of information about older patients' health perceptions. Questions asking about proxies' views yield suboptimal agreement with patient responses. However, proxy scales of UI and fall concern are internally consistent and may provide valid independent information

Fermi Large Area Telescope Observations of the Cosmic-Ray Induced gamma-ray Emission of the Earth's Atmosphere

We report on measurements of the cosmic-ray induced gamma-ray emission of Earth's atmosphere by the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The LAT has observed the Earth during its commissioning phase and with a dedicated Earth-limb following observation in September 2008. These measurements yielded 6.4 x 10^6 photons with energies >100MeV and ~250hours total livetime for the highest quality data selection. This allows the study of the spatial and spectral distributions of these photons with unprecedented detail. The spectrum of the emission - often referred to as Earth albedo gamma-ray emission - has a power-law shape up to 500 GeV with spectral index Gamma = 2.79+-0.06.Comment: Accepted for publication in PR

Gamma-ray flaring activity from the gravitationally lensed blazar PKS 1830-211 observed by Fermi LAT

The Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope routinely detects the highly dust-absorbed, reddened, and MeV-peaked flat spectrum radio quasar PKS 1830-211 (z=2.507). Its apparent isotropic gamma-ray luminosity (E>100 MeV) averaged over $\sim$ 3 years of observations and peaking on 2010 October 14/15 at 2.9 X 10^{50} erg s^{-1}, makes it among the brightest high-redshift Fermi blazars. No published model with a single lens can account for all of the observed characteristics of this complex system. Based on radio observations, one expects time delayed variability to follow about 25 days after a primary flare, with flux about a factor 1.5 less. Two large gamma-ray flares of PKS 1830-211 have been detected by the LAT in the considered period and no substantial evidence for such a delayed activity was found. This allows us to place a lower limit of about 6 on the gamma rays flux ratio between the two lensed images. Swift XRT observations from a dedicated Target of Opportunity program indicate a hard spectrum and with no significant correlation of X-ray flux with the gamma-ray variability. The spectral energy distribution can be modeled with inverse Compton scattering of thermal photons from the dusty torus. The implications of the LAT data in terms of variability, the lack of evident delayed flare events, and different radio and gamma-ray flux ratios are discussed. Microlensing effects, absorption, size and location of the emitting regions, the complex mass distribution of the system, an energy-dependent inner structure of the source, and flux suppression by the lens galaxy for one image path may be considered as hypotheses for understanding our results.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by the The Astrophysical Journal. Corresponding authors: S. Ciprini (ASI ASDC & INAF OAR, Rome, Italy), S. Buson (INAF Padova & Univ. of Padova, Padova, Italy), J. Finke (NRL, Washington, DC, USA), F. D'Ammando (INAF IRA, Bologna, Italy

Fermi Large Area Telescope Measurements of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission at Intermediate Galactic Latitudes

The diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission is produced by cosmic rays (CRs) interacting with the interstellar gas and radiation field. Measurements by the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory indicated excess gamma-ray emission > 1 GeV relative to diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission models consistent with directly measured CR spectra (the so-called ``EGRET GeV excess''). The excess emission was observed in all directions on the sky, and a variety of explanations have been proposed, including beyond-the-Standard-Model scenarios like annihilating or decaying dark matter. The Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has measured the diffuse gamma-ray emission with improved sensitivity and resolution compared to EGRET. We report on LAT measurements of the diffuse gamma-ray emission for energies 100 MeV to 10 GeV and Galactic latitudes 10 deg. <= |b| <= 20 deg. The LAT spectrum for this region of the sky is well reproduced by a diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission model that is consistent with local CR spectra and inconsistent with the EGRET GeV excess.Comment: 2 figures, 1 table, accepted by Physical Review Letters, available online Dec. 18th, 200

Observations of Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal galaxies with the Fermi-LAT detector and constraints on Dark Matter models

We report on the observations of 14 dwarf spheroidal galaxies with the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope taken during the first 11 months of survey mode operations. The Fermi telescope provides a new opportunity to test particle dark matter models through the expected gamma-ray emission produced by pair annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the largest galactic substructures predicted by the cold dark matter scenario, are attractive targets for such indirect searches for dark matter because they are nearby and among the most extreme dark matter dominated environments. No significant gamma-ray emission was detected above 100 MeV from the candidate dwarf galaxies. We determine upper limits to the gamma-ray flux assuming both power-law spectra and representative spectra from WIMP annihilation. The resulting integral flux above 100 MeV is constrained to be at a level below around 10^-9 photons cm^-2 s^-1. Using recent stellar kinematic data, the gamma-ray flux limits are combined with improved determinations of the dark matter density profile in 8 of the 14 candidate dwarfs to place limits on the pair annihilation cross-section of WIMPs in several widely studied extensions of the standard model. With the present data, we are able to rule out large parts of the parameter space where the thermal relic density is below the observed cosmological dark matter density and WIMPs (neutralinos here) are dominantly produced non-thermally, e.g. in models where supersymmetry breaking occurs via anomaly mediation. The gamma-ray limits presented here also constrain some WIMP models proposed to explain the Fermi and PAMELA e^+e^- data, including low-mass wino-like neutralinos and models with TeV masses pair-annihilating into muon-antimuon pairs. (Abridged)Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ, Corresponding authors: J. Cohen-Tanugi, C. Farnier, T.E. Jeltema, E. Nuss, and S. Profum

Fermi observations of TeV-selected AGN

We report on observations of TeV-selected AGN made during the first 5.5 months of observations with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on-board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi). In total, 96 AGN were selected for study, each being either (i) a source detected at TeV energies (28 sources) or (ii) an object that has been studied with TeV instruments and for which an upper-limit has been reported (68 objects). The Fermi observations show clear detections of 38 of these TeV-selected objects, of which 21 are joint GeV-TeV sources and 29 were not in the third EGRET catalog. For each of the 38 Fermi-detected sources, spectra and light curves are presented. Most can be described with a power law of spectral index harder than 2.0, with a spectral break generally required to accommodate the TeV measurements. Based on an extrapolation of the Fermi spectrum, we identify sources, not previously detected at TeV energies, which are promising targets for TeV instruments. Evidence for systematic evolution of the $\gamma$-ray spectrum with redshift is presented and discussed in the context of interaction with the EBL.Comment: 51 pages, 6 figures, accepted for The Astronomical Journa

PSR J1907+0602: A Radio-Faint Gamma-Ray Pulsar Powering a Bright TeV Pulsar Wind Nebula

We present multiwavelength studies of the 106.6 ms gamma-ray pulsar PSR J1907+06 near the TeV source MGRO J1908+06. Timing observations with Fermi result in a precise position determination for the pulsar of R.A. = 19h07m547(2), decl. = +06:02:16(2) placing the pulsar firmly within the TeV source extent, suggesting the TeV source is the pulsar wind nebula of PSR J1907+0602. Pulsed gamma-ray emission is clearly visible at energies from 100 MeV to above 10 GeV. The phase-averaged power-law index in the energy range E > 0.1 GeV is = 1.76 \pm 0.05 with an exponential cutoff energy E_{c} = 3.6 \pm 0.5 GeV. We present the energy-dependent gamma-ray pulsed light curve as well as limits on off-pulse emission associated with the TeV source. We also report the detection of very faint (flux density of ~3.4 microJy) radio pulsations with the Arecibo telescope at 1.5 GHz having a dispersion measure DM = 82.1 \pm 1.1 cm^{-3}pc. This indicates a distance of 3.2 \pm 0.6 kpc and a pseudo-luminosity of L_{1400} ~ 0.035 mJy kpc^2. A Chandra ACIS observation revealed an absorbed, possibly extended, compact <(4 arcsec) X-ray source with significant non-thermal emission at R.A. = 19h07m54.76, decl. = +06:02:14.6 with a flux of 2.3^{+0.6}_{-1.4} X 10^{-14} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}. From archival ASCA observations, we place upper limits on any arcminute scale 2--10 keV X-ray emission of ~ 1 X 10^{-13} erg cm^{-2} s^{-1}. The implied distance to the pulsar is compatible with that of the supernova remnant G40.5-0.5, located on the far side of the TeV nebula from PSR J1907+0602, and the S74 molecular cloud on the nearer side which we discuss as potential birth sites

Fermi Observations of the Very Hard Gamma-ray Blazar PG 1553+113

We report the observations of PG 1553+113 during the first ~200 days of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope science operations, from 4 August 2008 to 22 February 2009 (MJD 54682.7-54884.2). This is the first detailed study of PG 1553+113 in the GeV gamma-ray regime and it allows us to fill a gap of three decades in energy in its spectral energy distribution. We find PG 1553+113 to be a steady source with a hard spectrum that is best fit by a simple power-law in the Fermi energy band. We combine the Fermi data with archival radio, optical, X-ray and very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray data to model its broadband spectral energy distribution and find that a simple, one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model provides a reasonable fit. PG 1553+113 has the softest VHE spectrum of all sources detected in that regime and, out of those with significant detections across the Fermi energy bandpass so far, the hardest spectrum in that energy regime. Thus, it has the largest spectral break of any gamma-ray source studied to date, which could be due to the absorption of the intrinsic gamma-ray spectrum by the extragalactic background light (EBL). Assuming this to be the case, we selected a model with a low level of EBL and used it to absorb the power-law spectrum from PG 1553+113 measured with Fermi (200 MeV - 157 GeV) to find the redshift which gave the best fit to the measured VHE data (90 GeV - 1.1 TeV) for this parameterisation of the EBL. We show that this redshift can be considered an upper limit on the distance to PG 1553+113.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (28 pages, 5 figures

Fermi Large Area Telescope View of the Core of the Radio Galaxy Centaurus A

We present gamma-ray observations with the LAT on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope of the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus~A. The previous EGRET detection is confirmed, and the localization is improved using data from the first 10 months of Fermi science operation. In previous work, we presented the detection of the lobes by the LAT; in this work, we concentrate on the gamma-ray core of Cen~A. Flux levels as seen by the LAT are not significantly different from that found by EGRET, nor is the extremely soft LAT spectrum (\G=2.67\pm0.10_{stat}\pm0.08_{sys} where the photon flux is \Phi\propto E^{-\G}). The LAT core spectrum, extrapolated to higher energies, is marginally consistent with the non-simultaneous HESS spectrum of the source. The LAT observations are complemented by simultaneous observations from Suzaku, the Swift Burst Alert Telescope and X-ray Telescope, and radio observations with the Tracking Active Galactic Nuclei with Austral Milliarcsecond Interferometry (TANAMI) program, along with a variety of non-simultaneous archival data from a variety of instruments and wavelengths to produce a spectral energy distribution (SED). We fit this broadband data set with a single-zone synchrotron/synchrotron self-Compton model, which describes the radio through GeV emission well, but fails to account for the non-simultaneous higher energy TeV emission observed by HESS from 2004-2008. The fit requires a low Doppler factor, in contrast to BL Lacs which generally require larger values to fit their broadband SEDs. This indicates the \g-ray emission originates from a slower region than that from BL Lacs, consistent with previous modeling results from Cen~A. This slower region could be a slower moving layer around a fast spine, or a slower region farther out from the black hole in a decelerating flow.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. 32 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. J. Finke and Y. Fukazawa corresponding author