Identifying routes to remedy for violations of economic, social and cultural rights

This article examines the status of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights in Scotland and identifies routes to remedy for violations of these rights. ESC rights relate to areas such as housing, education, employment, standard of living and health. Violations of ESC rights impact on the most vulnerable in society. The mapping of rights conducted by the Scottish Human Rights Commission before the publication of the Getting It Right report revealed a legal deficit in the protection of ESC rights in Scotland. The evidence identified that protection mechanisms for socio-economic rights in Scotland are either insufficient or non-existent. This article builds on the evidence by exploring the legal nature of ESC rights: how they are currently protected in Scotland and how they are protected in other jurisdictions. It then examines the concept of a ‘remedy’ in international human rights law and proposes models for the better protection of ESC rights for potential future implementation in Scotland. This includes an examination of the risks and benefits in constitutionalising or legislating for ESC rights. This will be of interest to an international audience in terms of identifying justiciability mechanisms and models of constitutionalisation for ESC rights in different constitutional contexts, including Scotland

Localizing gravitational wave sources with optical telescopes and combining electromagnetic and gravitational wave data

Neutron star binaries, which are among the most promising sources for the direct detection of gravitational waves (GW) by ground based detectors, are also potential electromagnetic (EM) emitters. Gravitational waves will provide a new window to observe these events and hopefully give us glimpses of new astrophysics. In this paper, we discuss how EM information of these events can considerably improve GW parameter estimation both in terms of accuracy and computational power requirement. And then in return how GW sky localization can help EM astronomers in follow-up studies of sources which did not yield any prompt emission. We discuss how both EM source information and GW source localization can be used in a framework of multi-messenger astronomy. We illustrate how the large error regions in GW sky localizations can be handled in conducting optical astronomy in the advance detector era. We show some preliminary results in the context of an array of optical telescopes called BlackGEM, dedicated for optical follow-up of GW triggers, that is being constructed in La Silla, Chile and is expected to operate concurrent to the advanced GW detectors.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, Proceeding for Sant Cugat Forum for Astrophysic

Formula milk supplementation on the postnatal ward: a cross-sectional analytical study

Breastfeeding rates are low in the UK, where approximately one quarter of infants receive a breastmilk substitute (BMS) in the first week of life. We investigated the reasons for early BMS use in two large maternity units in the UK, in order to understand the reasons for the high rate of early BMS use in this setting. Data were collected through infant feeding records, as well as maternal and midwife surveys in 2016. During 2016, 28% of infants received a BMS supplement prior to discharge from the hospital maternity units with only 10% supplementation being clinically indicated. There was wide variation in BMS initiation rates between different midwives, which was associated with ward environment and midwife educational level. Specific management factors associated with non-clinically indicated initiation of BMS were the absence of skin-to-skin contact within an hour of delivery (p = 0.01), and no attendance at an antenatal breastfeeding discussion (p = 0.01). These findings suggest that risk of initiating a BMS during postnatal hospital stay is largely modifiable. Concordance with UNICEF Baby Friendly 10 steps, attention to specific features of the postnatal ward working environment, and the targeting of midwives and mothers with poor educational status may all lead to improved exclusive breastfeeding rates at hospital discharge

New results from the lattice on the theoretical inputs to the hadronic tau determination of V_us

Recent sum rule determinations of |V_us|, employing flavor-breaking combinations of hadronic tau decay data, are significantly lower than either expectations based on 3-family unitarity or determinations from K_ell3 and Gamma[K_mu2]/Gamma[pi_mu2]. We use lattice data to investigate the accuracy/reliability of the OPE representation of the flavor-breaking correlator combination entering the tau decay analyses. The behavior of an alternate correlator combination, constructed to reduce problems associated with the slow convergence of the D = 2 OPE series, and entering an alternate sum rule requiring both electroproduction cross-section and hadronic tau decay data, is also investigated. Preliminary updates of both analyses, with the lessons learned from the lattice data in mind, are also presented.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Prepared for the proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Tau Lepton Physics, Sep. 17-21, 2012, Nagoya, Japan and the 10th International Conference on Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum, Oct. 6-13, 2012, Garching/Munich, German

Some continuum physics results from the lattice V-A correlator

We present preliminary results on extractions of the chiral LECs L_10 and C_87 and constraints on the excited pseudoscalar state pi(1300) and pi(1800) decay constants obtained from an analysis of lattice data for the flavor ud light quark V-A correlator. A comparison of the results for the correlator to the corresponding mildly-model-dependent continuum results (based primarily on experimental hadronic tau decay data) is also givenComment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Prepared for the Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Cairns, Australia, June 24-29, 2012; expanded version of Reference 1

Simulation with Pharmacological Agents of Radiation Damage to Small Intestinal Villi

Irradiation induces damage to intestinal villi, resulting in a progressive decline in villous height and changes in topography. Gamma and neutron radiation are reported to cause changes in the structure of smooth muscle and nerve twigs of the intestinal wall. It is possible, therefore, that villous collapse may be due partly to changes in the underlying stromal elements as a result of damage to nerve or muscle. To test this hypothesis, mice were treated with the drug reserpine which is known to affect the neural control of intestinal smooth muscle function and the small intestine was examined for topographical and histological changes. Two dose levels of reserpine were used and a group of mice were exposed to a single dose of whole body 15 Gy X-irradiation. Comparable villous collapse was observed in each group. Resin embedded semi-thin sections revealed changes in the smooth muscle cells of the muscularis externa after each treatment, suggesting a correlation between villous collapse and smooth muscle damage in response to both irradiation and drug treatment

Labour efficiency on-farm

End of project reportImprovements in milking efficiency have a greater influence than any other aspect of the dairy farmers work on overall farm labour inputs (Whipp, 1992). In order to facilitate the examination of milking process labour inputs, the milking process may be divided into the following three components: herding pre and post milking (transfer of cows to and from the milking parlour); milking (milking tasks / work routines within the parlour); and washing (washing of milking machine and yard). Meanwhile, within milking specifically, the number of cows milked per operator per hour is the best measure of both the performance of the operator and the milking installation (Clough, 1978). This is affected by the following three factors: the milking times of the cows, the number and arrangement of the milking units, and the operator’s work routine (Whipp, 1992). The addition of extra milking units will only increase milking performance if the operator has idle time during milking (Hansen, 1999)

Compact Nuclei in Galaxies at Moderate Redshift:II. Their Nature and Implications for the AGN Luminosity Function

This study explores the space density and properties of active galaxies to z=0.8. We have investigated the frequency and nature of unresolved nuclei in galaxies at moderate redshift as indicators of nuclear activity such as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) or starbursts. Candidates are selected by fitting imaged galaxies with multi-component models using maximum likelihood estimate techniques to determine the best model fit. We select those galaxies requiring an unresolved point-source component in the galaxy nucleus, in addition to a disk and/or bulge component, to adequately model the galaxy light. We have searched 70 WFPC2 images primarily from the Medium Deep Survey for galaxies containing compact nuclei. In our survey of 1033 galaxies, the fraction containing an unresolved nuclear component greater than 5% of the total galaxy light is 9+/-1% corrected for incompleteness. In this second of two papers in this series, we discuss the nature of the compact nuclei and their hosts. We present the upper limit luminosity function (LF) for low-luminosity AGN (LLAGN) in two redshift bins to z=0.8. Mild number density evolution is detected for nuclei at -18 -16 and this flatness, combined with the increase in number density, is inconsistent with pure luminosity evolution. Based on the amount of density evolution observed for these objects, we find that almost all present-day spiral galaxies could have hosted a LLAGN at some point in their lives. We also comment on the likely contribution of these compact nuclei to the soft X-ray background.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures, to appear in ApJ, April 199

The distance to the young cluster NGC 7129 and its age

The dust cloud TGU H645 P2 and embedded in it young open cluster NGC 7129 are investigated using the results of medium-band photometry of 159 stars in the Vilnius seven-colour system down to V = 18.8 mag. The photometric data were used to classify about 50 percent of the measured stars in spectral and luminosity classes. The extinction A_V vs. distance diagram for the 20x20 arcmin area is plotted for 155 stars with two-dimensional classification from the present and the previous catalogues. The extinction values found range between 0.6 and 3.4 mag. However, some red giants, located in the direction of the dense parts of the cloud, exhibit the infrared extinction equivalent up to A_V = 13 mag. The distance to the cloud (and the cluster) is found to be 1.15 kpc (the true distance modulus 10.30 mag). For determining the age of NGC 7129, a luminosity vs. temperature diagram for six cluster members of spectral classes B3 to A1 was compared with the Pisa pre-main-sequence evolution tracks and the Palla birthlines. The cluster can be as old as about 3 Myr, but star forming continues till now as witnessed by the presence in the cloud of many younger pre-main-sequence objects identified with photometry from 2MASS, Spitzer and WISE infrared surveys.Comment: 8 pages, 6 fugures, full Table 1 online. Accepted for publication in MNRAS on 2013 November 3

The Gravitational Lensing in Redshift-space Correlation Functions of Galaxies and Quasars

The gravitational lensing, as well as the velocity field and the cosmological light-cone warp, changes the observed correlation function of high-redshift objects. We present an analytical expression of 3D correlation function, simultaneously including those three effects. When two objects are separated over several hundreds Mpc along a line of sight, the observed correlation function is dominated by the effect of gravitational lensing rather than the intrinsic clustering. For a canonical lambda-CDM model, the lensing signals in the galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-QSO correlations are beyond noise levels in large-scale redshift surveys like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, submitted to ApJ