The optical polarization of Epsilon Aurigae through the 1982-84 eclipse

About 350 nights observations on the 61-cm telescope at Pine Mt. Observatory were made of the variable polarization of Eps. Aurigae during 1982-85, in the U, B, and V color bands. The V data are the most complete and are shown. In terms of the overall features the curves in all three colors are quite similar. The typical errors per nightly point in the V curves are about 0.015% for either of the two normalized, equatorial Stokes parameters Q and U. Note that there is a large background or constant component of some 2.5%, position angle around 135 deg. This is presumably largely interstellar, and the intrinsic polarization probably does not much exceed the amplitude of the variable component, approx. 0.5%. A few field-star polarizations were measured but a very clear pattern was not obtained in this part of the sky

Effect of lithographically-induced strain relaxation on the magnetic domain configuration in microfabricated epitaxially grown Fe81Ga19

We investigate the role of lithographically-induced strain relaxation in a micron-scaled device fabricated from epitaxial thin films of the magnetostrictive alloy Fe81Ga19. The strain relaxation due to lithographic patterning induces a magnetic anisotropy that competes with the magnetocrystalline and shape induced anisotropy to play a crucial role in stabilising a flux-closing domain pattern. We use magnetic imaging, micromagnetic calculations and linear elastic modelling to investigate a region close to the edges of an etched structure. This highly-strained edge region has a significant influence on the magnetic domain configuration due to an induced magnetic anisotropy resulting from the inverse magnetostriction effect. We investigate the competition between the strain-induced and shape-induced anisotropy energies, and the resultant stable domain configurations, as the width of the bar is reduced to the nanoscale range. Understanding this behaviour will be important when designing hybrid magneto-electric spintronic devices based on highly magnetostrictive materials

The impact of mental health recovery narratives on recipients experiencing mental health problems: Qualitative analysis and change model.

BACKGROUND: Mental health recovery narratives are stories of recovery from mental health problems. Narratives may impact in helpful and harmful ways on those who receive them. The objective of this paper is to develop a change model identifying the range of possible impacts and how they occur. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adults with experience of mental health problems and recovery (n = 77). Participants were asked to share a mental health recovery narrative and to describe the impact of other people's recovery narratives on their own recovery. A change model was generated through iterative thematic analysis of transcripts. RESULTS: Change is initiated when a recipient develops a connection to a narrator or to the events descripted in their narrative. Change is mediated by the recipient recognising experiences shared with the narrator, noticing the achievements or difficulties of the narrator, learning how recovery happens, or experiencing emotional release. Helpful outcomes of receiving recovery narratives are connectedness, validation, hope, empowerment, appreciation, reference shift and stigma reduction. Harmful outcomes are a sense of inadequacy, disconnection, pessimism and burden. Impact is positively moderated by the perceived authenticity of the narrative, and can be reduced if the recipient is experiencing a crisis. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that incorporate the use of recovery narratives, such as peer support, anti-stigma campaigns and bibliotherapy, can use the change model to maximise benefit and minimise harms from narratives. Interventions should incorporate a diverse range of narratives available through different mediums to enable a range of recipients to connect with and benefit from this material. Service providers using recovery narratives should preserve authenticity so as to maximise impact, for example by avoiding excessive editing

Patient information leaflets (PILs) for UK randomised controlled trials : a feasibility study exploring whether they contain information to support decision making about trial participation

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Individuals with Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in the United States of America

BACKGROUND: Little is known about racial and ethnic differences in individuals with sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD). The authors sought to examine potential clinical, diagnostic, genetic, and neuropathological differences in sCJD patients of different races/ethnicities. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A retrospective study of 116 definite and probable sCJD cases from Johns Hopkins and the Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare Systems was conducted that examined differences in demographic, clinical, diagnostic, genetic, and neuropathological characteristics among racial/ethnic groups. Age at disease onset differed among racial/ethnic groups. Non-Hispanic Whites had a significantly older age at disease onset compared to the other groups (65 vs. 60, p = 0.036). Non-Whites were accurately diagnosed more rapidly than Whites (p = 0.008) and non-Hispanic Whites were more likely to have normal appearing basal ganglia on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compared to minorities (p = 0.02). Whites were also more likely to undergo post-mortem evaluation compared to non-Whites (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Racial/ethnic groups affected by sCJD demonstrated differences in age at disease onset, time to correct diagnosis, clinical presentation, and diagnostic test results. Whites were more likely to undergo autopsy compared to non-Whites. These results have implications in regards to case ascertainment, diagnosis, and surveillance of sCJD and possibly other human prion diseases

Between the Natural and the Artificial: The Sublime Sexual Sensation of Car Crashes in J.G. Ballard’s Crash

At a time when technology progressively pushes back nature, the sexual act runs the risk of being denaturalised. The notion of the sublime, which I argue is how humans react to the machine as a surrogate for nature and as a sexual stimulus in Crash (1973), is therefore of central interest in this article. Ballard himself has described Crash as ‘the first pornographic novel based on technology’ (1973, 6). This engagement with a technologised sexuality is explored as a subjective narrative stance, which grants authenticity to the fictive alter ego, who can probe alternatives to an extra-textual reality. This narrative mode is notably potent in relation to the narrator’s estimation of the merge between sexuality and technology in the form of car crashes uniting Eros and Thanatos. I therefore suggest that Crash can be read as an attempt to localise the natural and human in a world dictated by artificiality and technology

Neuroaesthetics: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience

This research was supported by Grant AAEE124/09 from the Govern de les Illes Balears, Spain