The distance to the young open cluster Westerlund 2

Evidence is presented indicating that the young star cluster Westerlund~2 lies $d_{\odot}\sim3.0$ kpc in the direction of Carina. The distance is tied partly to new $UBVRI_c$ photometry and revised spectral classifications for cluster stars, which imply that dust in the direction of Carina is characterized by an anomalous extinction law ($R_V\sim3.8$). That result was determined from a multi-faceted approach relying on the variable-extinction and color excess methods.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figure, proceedings of IAU Symposium 289, Beijing, August 201

The complex stellar populations in the lines of sight to open clusters in the third Galactic quadrant

Multi-color photometry of the stellar populations in five fields in the third Galactic quadrant centred on the clusters NGC 2215, NGC 2354, Haffner 22, Ruprecht 11, and ESO489SC01 is interpreted in terms of a warped and flared Galactic disk, without resort to an external entity such as the popular Monoceros or Canis Major overdensities. Except for NGC 2215, the clusters are poorly or unstudied previously. The data generate basic parameters for each cluster, including the distribution of stars along the line of sight. We use star counts and photometric analysis, without recourse to Galactic-model-based predictions or interpretations, and confirms earlier results for NGC 2215 and NGC 2354. ESO489SC01 is not a real cluster, while Haffner~22 is an overlooked cluster aged about 2.5 Gyr. Conclusions for Ruprecht~11 are preliminary, evidence for a cluster being marginal. Fields surrounding the clusters show signatures of young and intermediate-age stellar populations. The young population background to NGC~2354 and Ruprecht~11 lies 8-9 kpc from the Sun and $\sim$1 kpc below the formal Galactic plane, tracing a portion of the Norma-Cygnus arm, challenging Galactic models that adopt a sharp cut-off of the disk 12-14 kpc from the Galactic center. The old population is metal poor with an age of 2-3 Gyr, resembling star clusters like Tombaugh 2 or NGC 2158. It has a large color spread and is difficult to locate precisely. Young and old populations follow a pattern that depends critically on the vertical location of the thin and/or thick disk, and whether or not a particular line of sight intersects one, both, or none.Comment: 16 pages, 9 eps figures, in press in MNRA

Training and qualifying distance learning tutors

The UK Open University (www.open.ac.uk) is a large distance teaching university with some 200,000 students. The courses offered by the University are planned and written for the most part by the one thousand or so full-time academic staff of the University, working in course teams. Students are supported by face-to-face and on-line tutorial sessions and by feedback on their work. This tutoring and feedback are undertaken by part-time tutors, called Associate Lecturers (ALs), of whom there are currently some 7500. The Open University (OU) has, throughout some 35 years of operation, placed great emphasis on the importance of these ALs. The University has always provided staff development and training to help them in their work. However, until recently, the University has not in any systematic or large-scale way enabled these tutors to gain a qualification in teaching in higher education. Over the last fifteen years there has been a growing movement in the UK for those who teach in higher education to gain a suitable teaching qualification. In 2006 it will become a requirement for those new to teaching in higher education to gain an appropriate higher education teaching qualification. This teaching qualification will sit alongside their doctorate or other qualification in the discipline that they teach. (Some parts of this trend are also seen in countries other than UK, although this paper will not provide an international review of this topic.) In these institutional and national contexts, this paper describes and analyses the development, operation and evaluation of the OU’s Associate Lecturer Development and Accreditation Pathway (ALDAP) initiative. ALDAP was developed through wide consultation across the University. It is delivered through a mixture of on-line and face-to-face education and support similar to that used by ALs in their teaching. The paper uses research data on the effectiveness of the initiative to date. It also draws broader conclusions about appropriate forms of training and accreditation for those who teach in higher education, by distance learning and also face to face.peerreviewe

NETTLE Reference Framework for Educational Development, in English, Spanish and French

The framework was developed in response to feedback from partner institutions around Europe

Estimation Of Offtake Discharge And Cross-Device Parameters Using Data Assimilation For The Automatic Control Of An Irrigation Canal

The automatic control of open surface hydraulic systems such as Rivers (with dams and/or hydropower plants) or irrigation canals (with gated cross-devices) almost always use hydraulic models. These models can be used in different manners, either just to test and validate controllers prior to implementation, to tune the controller parameters off-line, or used on-line in real-time. The control algorithm calculates the control action variables u, using measured variables z obtained from the real system, in order to achieve some objectives for some controlled variables y. These models have always limited precision due to unknown or wrong: parameters, input variables and internal states. Among the parameters we find cross-device discharge and bed friction coefficients. Among input variables we find the inflow or outflow discharges entering into the river, or taken by users from the canal. Indeed, they are rarely measured, or in the best cases with a limited precision. This is a problem since the tuning of the control parameters of the feedback loops depends a lot on the dynamics of the system and therefore on the previous listed parameters. A feedforward control component, very useful for this class of delayed systems, could benefit from the knowledge of the input variables. In this paper we will show how data assimilation technics can reconstruct these unknown parameters and variables. We will also focus on the required number and locations of the measurements, to be able to reconstruct this correctly. We will study the best or required configurations allowing to use this information, detect and isolate some problems, correct the model, and reconstruct the wrong or unknown variables, inputs or parameters of the model. The framework we will use for this study is the Kalman filtering one. We will see that this framework is very powerful to solve the above described problems

The distance to the young open cluster Westerlund 2

Publisher's Version/PDFA new X-ray, UBVRIc, and JHKs study of the young cluster Westerlund 2 was undertaken to resolve discrepancies tied to the cluster&rsquo;s distance. Existing spectroscopic observations for bright cluster members and new multi-band photometry imply a reddening relation toward Westerlund 2 described by EU&minus;B/EB&minus;V = 0.63 + 0.02 EB&minus;V . Variable-extinction analyses for Westerlund 2 and nearby IC 2581 based upon spectroscopic distance moduli and ZAMS fitting yield values of RV = AV/EB&minus;V = 3.88&plusmn;0.18 and 3.77&plusmn;0.19, respectively, and confirm prior assertions that anomalous interstellar extinction is widespread throughout Carina. The results were confirmed by applying the color-difference method to UBVRIcJHKs data for 19 spectroscopically observed cluster members, yielding RV = 3.85 &plusmn; 0.07. The derived distance to Westerlund 2 of d = 2.85 &plusmn; 0.43 kpc places the cluster on the far side of the Carina spiral arm. The cluster&rsquo;s age is no more than &tau; &sim; 2 &times; 106 yr as inferred from the cluster&rsquo;s brightest stars and an X-ray (Chandra) cleaned analysis of its pre-main-sequence demographic. Four Wolf-Rayet stars in the cluster core and surrounding corona (WR20a, WR20b, WR20c, and WR20aa) are very likely cluster members, and their inferred luminosities are consistent with those of other late-WN stars in open clusters. The color&ndash;magnitude diagram for Westerlund 2 also displays a gap at spectral type B0.5 V with associated color spread at higher and lower absolute magnitudes that might be linked to close binary mergers. These features, in conjunction with the evidence for mass loss from the WR stars, may help to explain the high flux of &gamma;-rays, cosmic rays, and X-rays from the direction toward Westerlund 2.</p

The complex stellar populations in the background of open clusters in the third Galactic quadrant

Publisher's Version/PDFMulticolour photometry of the stellar populations in five fields in the third Galactic quadrant centred on the clusters NGC 2215, NGC 2354, Haffner 22, Ruprecht 11, and ESO489 SC01 is interpreted in terms of a warped and flared Galactic disc, without resort to an external entity such as the popular Monoceros or CanisMajor overdensities. Except for NGC 2215, the clusters are poorly or unstudied previously. The data generate basic parameters for each cluster, including the distribution of stars along the line of sight. We use star counts and photometric analysis,without recourse to Galactic-model-based predictions or interpretations, and confirms earlier results for NGC 2215 and NGC 2354. ESO489 SC01 is not a real cluster, while Haffner 22 is an overlooked cluster aged ∼2.5 Gyr. Conclusions for Ruprecht 11 are preliminary, evidence for a cluster being marginal. Fields surrounding the clusters show signatures of young and intermediate-age stellar populations. The young population background to NGC 2354 and Ruprecht 11 lies ∼8–9 kpc from the Sun and ∼1 kpc below the formal Galactic plane, tracing a portion of the Norma-Cygnus arm, challenging Galactic models that adopt a sharp cut-off of the disc 12–14 kpc from the Galactic Centre. The old population is metal-poor with an age of∼2–3 Gyr, resembling star clusters like Tombaugh 2 or NGC 2158. It has a large colour spread and is difficult to locate precisely. Young and old populations follow a pattern that depends critically on the vertical location of the thin and/or thick disc, and whether or not a particular line of sight intersects one, both, or none

Effects of Antihypertensive Medications on Quality of Life in Elderly Hypertensive Women

The impact of antihypertensive medications on the quality of life of elderly hypertensive women has rarely been systematically evaluated in large clinical trials using drugs from the new generations of pharmaceutic preparations. We carried out a multicenter, randomized double-blind clinical trial with 309 hypertensive women aged 60 to 80 years to assess effects of atenolol, enalapril, and isradipine on measures of quality of life over a 22-week period. The patients had mild to moderate hypertension. Hydrochlorothiazide was added to treatment if monotherapy was inadequate in lowering blood pressure. At the conclusion of the trial the three drug groups did not differ in degree of reduction of diastolic blood pressure or in supplementation with hydrochlorothiazide. Over the 22-week trial, linear trend analysis showed no differences between the treatment groups in change from baseline on quality of life measures of well-being, physical status, emotional status, cognitive functioning, and social role participation. Regarding each of 33 physical side effects over the 22 weeks, we found no general difference between atenolol, enalapril, and isradipine groups on measures of change in distress over symptoms except for enalapril patients who worsened in distress over cough (P = .001) and atenolol patients who worsened in distress over dry mouth (P = .014). Centering on three medications that are relatively new additions to the armamentarium for blood pressure control, the findings underline the increasing opportunities for the physician to select drugs that can control blood pressure while maintaining the quality of life of elderly hypertensive women

The age patterns of severe malaria syndromes in sub-Saharan Africa across a range of transmission intensities and seasonality settings

BACKGROUND: A greater understanding of the relationship between transmission intensity, seasonality and the age-pattern of malaria is needed to guide appropriate targeting of malaria interventions in different epidemiological settings. METHODS: A systematic literature review identified studies which reported the age of paediatric hospital admissions with cerebral malaria (CM), severe malarial anaemia (SMA), or respiratory distress (RD). Study sites were categorized into a 3 × 2 matrix of Plasmodium falciparum transmission intensity and seasonality. Probability distributions were fitted by maximum likelihood methods, and best fitting models were used to estimate median ages and to represent graphically the age-pattern of each outcome for each transmission category in the matrix. RESULTS: A shift in the burden of CM towards younger age groups was seen with increasing intensity of transmission, but this was not the case for SMA or RD. Sites with 'no marked seasonality' showed more evidence of skewed age-patterns compared to areas of 'marked seasonality' for all three severe malaria syndromes. CONCLUSIONS: Although the peak age of CM will increase as transmission intensity decreases in Africa, more than 75% of all paediatric hospital admissions of severe malaria are likely to remain in under five year olds in most epidemiological settings

Bed net ownership, use and perceptions among women seeking antenatal care in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Opportunities for improved maternal and child health

Abstract: Background: To describe malaria knowledge, attitudes toward malaria and bed net use, levels of ownership and use of bed nets, and factors associated with ownership and use among pregnant women attending their first antenatal care (ANC) visit in Kinshasa, DRC. Methods: Women attending their first ANC visit at one maternity in Kinshasa were recruited to take part in a study where they were given free insecticide treated bed nets (ITNs) and then followed up at delivery and 6 months post delivery to assess ITN use. This study describes the baseline levels of bed net ownership and use, attitudes towards net use and factors associated with net use Results: Among 351 women interviewed at baseline, 115 (33%) already owned a bed net and 86 (25%) reported to have slept under the net the previous night. Cost was reported as the reason for not owning a net by 48% of the 236 women who did not own one. In multivariable analyses, women who had secondary school or higher education were 3.4 times more likely to own a net (95% CI 1.6–7.3) and 2.8 times more likely to have used a net (95% CI 1.3–6.0) compared to women with less education Conclusion: Distribution of ITNs in antenatal clinics in this setting is needed and feasible. The potential for ITN use by this target population is high