The Genesis of Magnetic Fields in White Dwarfs

Magnetic fields generated by a dynamo mechanism due to differential rotation during stellar mergers are often proposed as an explanation for the presence of strong fields in certain classes of magnetic stars, including high field magnetic white dwarfs (HFMWDs). In the case of the HFMWDs, the site of the differential rotation has been variously proposed to be the common envelope itself, the massive hot outer regions of a merged degenerate core or an accretion disc formed by a tidally disrupted companion that is subsequently incorporated into a degenerate core. In the present study I explore the possibility that the origin of HFMWDs is consistent with stellar interactions during the common envelope evolution (CEE). In this picture the observed fields are caused by an alpha-Omega dynamo driven by differential rotation. The strongest fields would arise when the differential rotation equals the critical break up velocity and would occur from the merging of two stars during CEE or double degenerate (DD) mergers in a post common envelope (CE) stage. Those systems that do not coalesce but emerge from the CE on a close orbit and about to initiate mass transfer will evolve into magnetic cataclysmic variables (MCVs). The population synthesis calculations carried out in this work have shown that the origin of high fields in isolated white dwarfs (WDs) and in WDs in MCVs is consistent with stellar interaction during common envelope evolution. I compare the calculated field strengths to those observed and test the correlation between theory and observation by means of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (K–S) test and show that the resulting correlation is good for values of the CE energy efficiency parameter, ALPHA-CE, in the range 0.1–0.3

ICRA Roboethics Challenge 2023: Intelligent Disobedience in an Elderly Care Home

With the projected surge in the elderly population, service robots offer a promising avenue to enhance their well-being in elderly care homes. Such robots will encounter complex scenarios which will require them to perform decisions with ethical consequences. In this report, we propose to leverage the Intelligent Disobedience framework in order to give the robot the ability to perform a deliberation process over decisions with potential ethical implications. We list the issues that this framework can assist with, define it formally in the context of the specific elderly care home scenario, and delineate the requirements for implementing an intelligently disobeying robot. We conclude this report with some critical analysis and suggestions for future work.Comment: This report is part of ICRA roboethics competition : https://competition.raiselab.ca/competition-details-2023_1/ethics-challenge/submitted-proposals/submission-

Why geriatric medicine? A survey of UK specialist trainees in geriatric medicine

Background: There is global concern that there are insufficient numbers of geriatricians to meet the needs of the ageing population. A 2005 survey described factors that influenced why UK geriatricians had chosen to specialise in the field - in the decade since, UK postgraduate training has undergone a fundamental restructure. Objective: To explore whether the reasons for choosing a career in geriatric medicine in the UK had changed over time, with the goal of using this knowledge to inform recruitment and training initiatives. Design: An online survey was sent to all UK higher medical trainees in geriatric medicine. Methods: Survey questions that produced categorical data were analysed with simple descriptive statistics. For the survey questions that produced free-text responses, an inductive, iterative approach to analysis, in keeping with the principles of framework analysis, was employed. Results: 269 responses were received out of 641 eligible respondents. Compared with the previous survey, a substantially larger number of respondents regarded geriatric medicine to be their first-choice specialty and a smaller number regretted their career decision. A greater number chose geriatric medicine early in their medical careers. Commitments to the general medical rota and the burden of service provision were considered important downsides to the specialty. Conclusions: There are reasons to be optimistic about recruitment to geriatric medicine. Future attempts to drive up recruitment might legitimately focus on the role of the medical registrar and perceptions that geriatricians shoulder a disproportionate burden of service commitments and obligations to the acute medical take

Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, South-South Nigeria: a 5-year review

Background: Hypertensive disorders complicate 5.2%-8.2% of pregnancies, and contribute significantly to perinatal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide. The objective of this study is to determine the incidence, clinical characteristics, maternal and perinatal outcomes of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, South-South Nigeria.Methods: This retrospective study was conducted between 1 January, 2016 and 31 December, 2020. Relevant data was retrieved, entered into a pre-designed proforma, and analysed using IBM SPSS version 25.0.Results: Out of the 4,571 obstetric patients that were managed in our Centre in the period under review, 335 of them had HDP, giving an incidence rate of 7.32%. The most common HDP were pre-eclampsia (189, 56.4%) and eclampsia (82, 24.5%), while the least common was chronic hypertension (3, 0.9%). A little more than one-half (171, 51.0%) of the women delivered preterm, with a mean gestational age at delivery of 35.5 weeks. The most common route of delivery was emergency Caesarean section (205, 61.2%). There were three maternal deaths, giving a case fatality rate of 0.9%. Two of the maternal deaths were due to eclampsia, and one, from pre-eclampsia.Conclusions: Women should be adequately counseled to embrace preconception care, early booking and regular antenatal care visits, with proper monitoring of blood pressure and urine protein. Prompt diagnosis and management are key in preventing the maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality that are associated with these disorders

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog I. Early Data Release

We present the first edition of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Quasar Catalog. The catalog consists of the 3814 objects (3000 discovered by the SDSS) in the initial SDSS public data release that have at least one emission line with a full width at half maximum larger than 1000 km/s, luminosities brighter than M_i^* = -23, and highly reliable redshifts. The area covered by the catalog is 494 square degrees; the majority of the objects were found in SDSS commissioning data using a multicolor selection technique. The quasar redshifts range from 0.15 to 5.03. For each object the catalog presents positions accurate to better than 0.2" rms per coordinate, five band (ugriz) CCD-based photometry with typical accuracy of 0.05 mag, radio and X-ray emission properties, and information on the morphology and selection method. Calibrated spectra of all objects in the catalog, covering the wavelength region 3800 to 9200 Angstroms at a spectral resolution of 1800-2100, are also available. Since the quasars were selected during the commissioning period, a time when the quasar selection algorithm was undergoing frequent revisions, the sample is not homogeneous and is not intended for statistical analysis.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables, accepted by A

Methods for specifying the target difference in a randomised controlled trial : the Difference ELicitation in TriAls (DELTA) systematic review

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging of Low Galactic Latitude Fields: Technical Summary and Data Release

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) mosaic camera and telescope have obtained five-band optical-wavelength imaging near the Galactic plane outside of the nominal survey boundaries. These additional data were obtained during commissioning and subsequent testing of the SDSS observing system, and they provide unique wide-area imaging data in regions of high obscuration and star formation, including numerous young stellar objects, Herbig-Haro objects and young star clusters. Because these data are outside the Survey regions in the Galactic caps, they are not part of the standard SDSS data releases. This paper presents imaging data for 832 square degrees of sky (including repeats), in the star-forming regions of Orion, Taurus, and Cygnus. About 470 square degrees are now released to the public, with the remainder to follow at the time of SDSS Data Release 4. The public data in Orion include the star-forming region NGC 2068/NGC 2071/HH24 and a large part of Barnard's loop.Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures (3 missing to save space), accepted by AJ, in press, see http://photo.astro.princeton.edu/oriondatarelease for data and paper with all figure

Suitability Of Nitisinone In Alkaptonuria 1 (SONIA 1): an international, multicentre, randomised, open-label, no-treatment controlled, parallel-group, dose-response study to investigate the effect of once daily nitisinone on 24-h urinary homogentisic acid excretion in patients with alkaptonuria after 4 weeks of treatment.

BACKGROUND: Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a serious genetic disease characterised by premature spondyloarthropathy. Homogentisate-lowering therapy is being investigated for AKU. Nitisinone decreases homogentisic acid (HGA) in AKU but the dose-response relationship has not been previously studied. METHODS: Suitability Of Nitisinone In Alkaptonuria 1 (SONIA 1) was an international, multicentre, randomised, open-label, no-treatment controlled, parallel-group, dose-response study. The primary objective was to investigate the effect of different doses of nitisinone once daily on 24-h urinary HGA excretion (u-HGA24) in patients with AKU after 4 weeks of treatment. Forty patients were randomised into five groups of eight patients each, with groups receiving no treatment or 1 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg and 8 mg of nitisinone. FINDINGS: A clear dose-response relationship was observed between nitisinone and the urinary excretion of HGA. At 4 weeks, the adjusted geometric mean u-HGA24 was 31.53 mmol, 3.26 mmol, 1.44 mmol, 0.57 mmol and 0.15 mmol for the no treatment or 1 mg, 2 mg, 4 mg and 8 mg doses, respectively. For the most efficacious dose, 8 mg daily, this corresponds to a mean reduction of u-HGA24 of 98.8% compared with baseline. An increase in tyrosine levels was seen at all doses but the dose-response relationship was less clear than the effect on HGA. Despite tyrosinaemia, there were no safety concerns and no serious adverse events were reported over the 4 weeks of nitisinone therapy. CONCLUSIONS: In this study in patients with AKU, nitisinone therapy decreased urinary HGA excretion to low levels in a dose-dependent manner and was well tolerated within the studied dose range. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: EudraCT number: 2012-005340-24. Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCTO1828463

Individuals with chronic low back pain have greater difficulty in engaging in positive lifestyle behaviours than those without back pain: An assessment of health literacy

Background: Despite the large volume of research dedicated to understanding chronic low back pain (CLBP), patient outcomes remain modest while healthcare costs continue to rise, creating a major public health burden. Health literacy - the ability to seek, understand and utilise health information - has been identified as an important factor in the course of other chronic conditions and may be important in the aetiology of CLBP. Many of the currently available health literacy measurement tools are limited since they measure narrow aspects of health literacy. The Health Literacy Measurement Scale (HeLMS) was developed recently to measure broader elements of health literacy. The aim of this study was to measure broad elements of health literacy among individuals with CLBP and without LBP using the HeLMS.Methods: Thirty-six community-dwelling adults with CLBP and 44 with no history of LBP responded to the HeLMS. Individuals were recruited as part of a larger community-based spinal health study in Western Australia. Scores for the eight domains of the HeLMS as well as individual item responses were compared between the groups.Results: HeLMS scores were similar between individuals with and without CLBP for seven of the eight health literacy domains (p &gt; 0.05). However, compared to individuals with no history of LBP, those with CLBP had a significantly lower score in the domain &lsquo;Patient attitudes towards their health&rsquo; (mean difference [95% CI]: 0.46 [0.11- 0.82]) and significantly lower scores for each of the individual items within this domain (p &lt; 0.05). Moderate effect sizes ranged from d = 0.47-0.65.Conclusions: Although no differences were identified in HeLMS scores between the groups for seven of the health literacy domains, adults with CLBP reported greater difficulty in engaging in general positive health behaviours. This aspect of health literacy suggests that self-management support initiatives may benefit individuals with CLBP.<br /

The Second Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has validated and made publicly available its Second Data Release. This data release consists of 3324 deg2 of five-band (ugriz) imaging data with photometry for over 88 million unique objects, 367,360 spectra of galaxies, quasars, stars, and calibrating blank sky patches selected over 2627 deg2 of this area, and tables of measured parameters from these data. The imaging data reach a depth of r ≈ 22.2 (95% completeness limit for point sources) and are photometrically and astrometrically calibrated to 2% rms and 100 mas rms per coordinate, respectively. The imaging data have all been processed through a new version of the SDSS imaging pipeline, in which the most important improvement since the last data release is fixing an error in the model fits to each object. The result is that model magnitudes are now a good proxy for point-spread function magnitudes for point sources, and Petrosian magnitudes for extended sources. The spectroscopy extends from 3800 to 9200 Å at a resolution of 2000. The spectroscopic software now repairs a systematic error in the radial velocities of certain types of stars and has substantially improved spectrophotometry. All data included in the SDSS Early Data Release and First Data Release are reprocessed with the improved pipelines and included in the Second Data Release. Further characteristics of the data are described, as are the data products themselves and the tools for accessing them