26 research outputs found
Testing for sexually transmitted infections in general practice: cross-sectional study
Background: Primary care is an important provider of sexual health care in England. We sought to explore the extent of testing for chlamydia and HIV in general practice and its relation to associated measures of sexual health in two contrasting geographical settings.Methods: We analysed chlamydia and HIV testing data from 64 general practices and one genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinic in Brent (from mid-2003 to mid-2006) and 143 general practices and two GUM clinics in Avon (2004). We examined associations between practice testing status, practice characteristics and hypothesised markers of population need (area level teenage conception rates and Index of Multiple Deprivation, IMD scores).Results: No HIV or chlamydia testing was done in 19% (12/64) of general practices in Brent, compared to 2.1% (3/143) in Avon. In Brent, the mean age of general practitioners (GPs) in Brent practices that tested for chlamydia or HIV was lower than in those that had not conducted testing. Practices where no HIV testing was done had slightly higher local teenage conception rates (median 23.5 vs. 17.4/1000 women aged 15-44, p = 0.07) and served more deprived areas (median IMD score 27.1 vs. 21.8, p = 0.05). Mean yearly chlamydia and HIV testing rates, in practices that did test were 33.2 and 0.6 (per 1000 patients aged 15-44 years) in Brent, and 34.1 and 10.3 in Avon, respectively. In Brent practices only 20% of chlamydia tests were conducted in patients aged under 25 years, compared with 39% in Avon.Conclusions: There are substantial geographical differences in the intensity of chlamydia and HIV testing in general practice. Interventions to facilitate sexually transmitted infection and HIV testing in general practice are needed to improve access to effective sexual health care. The use of routinely-collected laboratory, practice-level and demographic data for monitoring sexual health service provision and informing service planning should be more widely evaluated
Chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge as traced by microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars. IV. Two bulge populations
[ABRIDGED] Based on high-resolution (R~42000 to 48000) and high
signal-to-noise (S/N~50 to 150) spectra obtained with UVES/VLT, we present
detailed elemental abundances (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Zn, Y,
and Ba) and stellar ages for 26 microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars in the
Galactic bulge. The analysis is based on equivalent width measurements and
standard 1-D LTE MARCS model stellar atmospheres. We also present NLTE Li
abundances based on line synthesis of the 7Li line at 670.8 nm. We show that
the bulge metallicity distribution (MDF) is double-peaked; one peak at [Fe/H]=
-0.6 and one at [Fe/H]=+0.3, and with a dearth of stars around solar
metallicity. This is in contrast to the MDF derived from red giants in Baade's
window, which peaks at this exact value. A simple significance test shows that
it is extremely unlikely to have such a gap in the microlensed dwarf star MDF
if the dwarf stars are drawn from the giant star MDF. To resolve this issue we
discuss several possibilities, but we can not settle on a conclusive solution
for the observed differences. We further find that the metal-poor bulge dwarf
stars are predominantly old with ages greater than 10\,Gyr, while the
metal-rich bulge dwarf stars show a wide range of ages. The metal-poor bulge
sample is very similar to the Galactic thick disk in terms of average
metallicity, elemental abundance trends, and stellar ages. Speculatively, the
metal-rich bulge population might be the manifestation of the inner thin disk.
If so, the two bulge populations could support the recent findings, based on
kinematics, that there are no signatures of a classical bulge and that the
Milky Way is a pure-disk galaxy. Also, recent claims of a flat IMF in the bulge
based on the MDF of giant stars may have to be revised based on the MDF and
abundance trends probed by our microlensed dwarf stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, new version with with missing
authors adde
The T2K experiment
The T2K experiment is a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment. Its main goal is to measure the last unknown lepton sector mixing angle Ξ13 by observing Μe appearance in a ΜΌ beam. It also aims to make a precision measurement of the known oscillation parameters, and sin22Ξ23, via ΜΌ disappearance studies. Other goals of the experiment include various neutrino cross-section measurements and sterile neutrino searches. The experiment uses an intense proton beam generated by the J-PARC accelerator in Tokai, Japan, and is composed of a neutrino beamline, a near detector complex (ND280), and a far detector (Super-Kamiokande) located 295 km away from J-PARC. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the instrumentation aspect of the T2K experiment and a summary of the vital information for each subsystem