6,980 research outputs found
Personal factors influence use of cervical cancer screening services: epidemiological survey and linked administrative data address the limitations of previous research
National screening programs have reduced cervical cancer mortality; however participation in these programs varies according to women's personal and social characteristics. Research into these inequalities has been limited by reliance on self-reported service use data that is potentially biased, or administrative data that lacks personal detail. We address these limitations and extend existing research by examining rates and correlates of cervical screening in a large epidemiological survey with linked administrative data. MethodsThe cross-sectional sample included 1685 women aged 44-48 and 64-68 years from the Australian Capital Territory and Queanbeyan, Australia. Relative risk was assessed by logistic regression models and summary Population Attributable Risk (PAR) was used to quantify the effect of inequalities on rates of cervical cancer screening. ResultsOverall, 60.5% of women participated in screening over the two-year period recommended by Australian guidelines. Screening participation was associated with having children, moderate or high use of health services, employment, reported lifetime history of drug use, and better physical functioning. Conversely, rates of cervical screening were lower amongst women who were older, reliant on welfare, obese, current smokers, reported childhood sexual abuse, and those with anxiety symptoms. A summary PAR showed that effective targeting of women with readily observable risk-factors (no children, no partner, receiving income support payments, not working, obese, current smoker, anxiety, poor physical health, and low overall health service use) could potentially reduce overall non-participation in screening by 74%. ConclusionsThis study illustrates a valuable method for investigating the personal determinants of health service use by combining representative survey data with linked administrative records. Reliable knowledge about the characteristics that predict uptake of cervical cancer screening services will inform targeted health promotion efforts
Unusual Burst Emission from the New Soft Gamma Repeater SGR1627-41
In June-July,1998 the Konus-Wind burst spectrometer observed a series of
bursts from the new soft gamma repeater SGR1627-41. Time histories and energy
spectra of the bursts have been studied, revealing fluences and peak fluxes in
the ranges of 3x10^{-7} - 7.5x10^{-6} erg cm^{-2} and 10^{-5} - 10^{-4}erg
cm^{-2}/s respectively. One event, 18 June 6153.5sUT stands out dramatically
from this series. Its fluence is ~7x10^{-4} erg cm^{-2} and peak flux
~2x10^{-2} erg cm^{-2}/s. These values from a source at a distance of 5.8 kpc
yield an energy output of ~3x10^{42}erg and maximum luminosity of ~8x10^{43}
erg/s, similar to the values for the famous March 5, 1979 and August27,1998
events. In terms of energy, this event is another giant outburst seen in a
third SGR! However, this very energetic burst differs significantly from the
other giant outbursts. It exhibits no separate initial pulse with a fast rise
time, no extended tail, and no pulsations. It is rather similar to ordinary
repeated bursts but is a few hundred times stronger in intensity. According to
the magnetar model by Thompson and Duncan (1995) such a burst may be initiated
by a strong starquake when a crust fracture propagates over the whole surface
of a neutron star.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. To be appeared in ApJ
Reactivation and Precise IPN Localization of the Soft Gamma Repeater SGR1900+14
In 1998 May, the soft gamma repeater SGR1900+14 emerged from several years of
quiescence and emitted a series of intense bursts, one with a time history
unlike any previously observed from this source. Triangulation using Ulysses,
BATSE, and KONUS data give a 1.6 square arcminute error box near the galactic
supernova remnant G42.8+0.6. This error box contains a quiescent soft X-ray
source which is probably a neutron star associated with the soft repeater.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letter
Quasars: a supermassive rotating toroidal black hole interpretation
A supermassive rotating toroidal black hole (TBH) is proposed as the
fundamental structure of quasars and other jet-producing active galactic
nuclei. Rotating protogalaxies gather matter from the central gaseous region
leading to the birth of massive toroidal stars whose internal nuclear reactions
proceed very rapidly. Once the nuclear fuel is spent, gravitational collapse
produces a slender ring-shaped TBH remnant. These events are typically the
first supernovae of the host galaxies. Given time the TBH mass increases
through continued accretion by several orders of magnitude, the event horizon
swells whilst the central aperture shrinks. The difference in angular
velocities between the accreting matter and the TBH induces a magnetic field
that is strongest in the region of the central aperture and innermost
ergoregion. Due to the presence of negative energy states when such a
gravitational vortex is immersed in an electromagnetic field, circumstances are
near ideal for energy extraction via non-thermal radiation including the
Penrose process and superradiant scattering. This establishes a self-sustaining
mechanism whereby the transport of angular momentum away from the quasar by
relativistic bi-directional jets reinforces both the modulating magnetic field
and the TBH/accretion disk angular velocity differential. Quasar behaviour is
extinguished once the BH topology becomes spheroidal. Similar mechanisms may be
operating in microquasars, SNe and GRBs when neutron density or BH tori arise.
In certain circumstances, long-term TBH stability can be maintained by a
negative cosmological constant, otherwise the classical topology theorems must
somehow be circumvented. Preliminary evidence is presented that Planck-scale
quantum effects may be responsible.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figs, various corrections and enhancements, final
versio
An updated assessment of the Agulhas sole resource, Austroglossus pectoralis
This analysis updates that of Butterworth and Glazer (2014), which considered two hypotheses of decreasing catchability and of decreasing productivity to account for a recent large drop in CPUE. Two further years of data reflect some increase in CPUE. For the most pessimistic scenario (a decrease in productivity, which remains at its current reduced level into the future), projections are somewhat more positive than previously, with recent biomasses estimated higher and projected to decrease more slowly if the 2013 effort level is maintained
Snowmass 2001: Jet Energy Flow Project
Conventional cone jet algorithms arose from heuristic considerations of LO
hard scattering coupled to independent showering. These algorithms implicitly
assume that the final states of individual events can be mapped onto a unique
set of jets that are in turn associated with a unique set of underlying hard
scattering partons. Thus each final state hadron is assigned to a unique
underlying parton. The Jet Energy Flow (JEF) analysis described here does not
make such assumptions. The final states of individual events are instead
described in terms of flow distributions of hadronic energy. Quantities of
physical interest are constructed from the energy flow distribution summed over
all events. The resulting analysis is less sensitive to higher order
perturbative corrections and the impact of showering and hadronization than the
standard cone algorithms.Comment: REVTeX4, 13 pages, 6 figures; Contribution to the P5 Working Group on
QCD and Strong Interactions at Snowmass 200
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