Mapping the prevalence of cancer risk factors at the small area level in Australia

Cancer is a significant health issue globally and it is well known that cancer risk varies geographically. However in many countries there are no small area-level data on cancer risk factors with high resolution and complete reach, which hinders the development of targeted prevention strategies. Using Australia as a case study, the 2017-2018 National Health Survey was used to generate prevalence estimates for 2221 small areas across Australia for eight cancer risk factor measures covering smoking, alcohol, physical activity, diet and weight. Utilising a recently developed Bayesian two-stage small area estimation methodology, the model incorporated survey-only covariates, spatial smoothing and hierarchical modelling techniques, along with a vast array of small area-level auxiliary data, including census, remoteness, and socioeconomic data. The models borrowed strength from previously published cancer risk estimates provided by the Social Health Atlases of Australia. Estimates were internally and externally validated. We illustrated that in 2017-18 health behaviours across Australia exhibited more spatial disparities than previously realised by improving the reach and resolution of formerly published cancer risk factors. The derived estimates reveal higher prevalence of unhealthy behaviours in more remote areas, and areas of lower socioeconomic status; a trend that aligns well with previous work. Our study addresses the gaps in small area level cancer risk factor estimates in Australia. The new estimates provide improved spatial resolution and reach and will enable more targeted cancer prevention strategies at the small area level, supporting policy makers, researchers, and the general public in understanding the spatial distribution of cancer risk factors in Australia. To help disseminate the results of this work, they will be made available in the Australian Cancer Atlas 2.0.Comment: Submitted to the International Journal of Health Geographic

Sequential changes in ocean circulation and biological export productivity during the last glacial-interglacial cycle: a model-data study

We conduct a model-data analysis of the marine carbon cycle to understand and quantify the drivers of atmospheric CO2 concentration during the last glacial-interglacial cycle. We use a carbon cycle box model, "SCP-M", combined with multiple proxy data for the atmosphere and ocean, to test for variations in ocean circulation and Southern Ocean biological export productivity across marine isotope stages spanning 130 000 years ago to the present. The model is constrained by proxy data associated with a range of environmental conditions including sea surface temperature, salinity, ocean volume, sea-ice cover and shallow-water carbonate production. Model parameters for global ocean circulation, Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and Southern Ocean biological export productivity are optimized in each marine isotope stage against proxy data for atmospheric CO2, delta C-13 and Delta C-14 and deep-ocean delta C-13, Delta C-14 and CO32-. Our model-data results suggest that global overturning circulation weakened during Marine Isotope Stage 5d, coincident with a similar to 25 ppm fall in atmospheric CO2 from the last interglacial period. There was a transient slowdown in Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during Marine Isotope Stage 5b, followed by a more pronounced slowdown and enhanced Southern Ocean biological export productivity during Marine Isotope Stage 4 (similar to -30 ppm). In this model, the Last Glacial Maximum was characterized by relatively weak global ocean and Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and increased Southern Ocean biological export productivity (similar to -20 ppm during MIS 3 and MIS 2). Ocean circulation and Southern Ocean biological export productivity returned to modern values by the Holocene period. The terrestrial biosphere decreased by 385 Pg C in the lead-up to the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by a period of intense regrowth during the last glacial termination and the Holocene (similar to 600 Pg C). Slowing ocean circulation, a colder ocean and to a lesser extent shallow carbonate dissolution contributed similar to -70 ppm to atmospheric CO2 in the similar to 100 000-year leadup to the Last Glacial Maximum, with a further similar to -15 ppm contributed during the glacial maximum. Our model results also suggest that an increase in Southern Ocean biological export productivity was one of the ingredients required to achieve the Last Glacial Maximum atmospheric CO2 level. We find that the incorporation of glacial-interglacial proxy data into a simple quantitative ocean transport model provides useful insights into the timing of past changes in ocean processes, enhancing our understanding of the carbon cycle during the last glacial-interglacial period

Comparison of various characteristics of women who do and do not attend for breast cancer screening

BACKGROUND: Information regarding the characteristics and health of women who do and do not attend for breast cancer screening is limited and representative data are difficult to obtain. METHODS: Information on age, deprivation and prescriptions for various medications was obtained for all women at two UK general practices who were invited to breast cancer screening through the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme. The characteristics of women who attended and did not attend screening were compared. RESULTS: Of the 1064 women invited to screening from the two practices, 882 (83%) attended screening. Screening attenders were of a similar age to non-attenders but came from significantly less deprived areas (30% of attenders versus 50% of non-attenders came from the most deprived areas, P < 0.0001) and were more likely to have a current prescription for hormone replacement therapy (32% versus 19%, P < 0.0001). No significant differences in recent prescriptions of medication for hypertension, heart disease, hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes mellitus, asthma, thyroid disease or depression/anxiety were observed between attenders and non-attenders. CONCLUSION: Women who attend the National Health Service Breast Screening Programme come from less deprived areas and are more likely to have a current prescription for hormone replacement therapy than non-attenders, but do not differ in terms of age or recent prescriptions for various other medications

The Extreme Small Scales: Do Satellite Galaxies Trace Dark Matter?

We investigate the radial distribution of galaxies within their host dark matter halos by modeling their small-scale clustering, as measured in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Specifically, we model the Jiang et al. (2011) measurements of the galaxy two-point correlation function down to very small projected separations (10 < r < 400 kpc/h), in a wide range of luminosity threshold samples (absolute r-band magnitudes of -18 up to -23). We use a halo occupation distribution (HOD) framework with free parameters that specify both the number and spatial distribution of galaxies within their host dark matter halos. We assume that the first galaxy in each halo lives at the halo center and that additional satellite galaxies follow a radial density profile similar to the dark matter Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile, except that the concentration and inner slope are allowed to vary. We find that in low luminosity samples, satellite galaxies have radial profiles that are consistent with NFW. M_r < -20 and brighter satellite galaxies have radial profiles with significantly steeper inner slopes than NFW (we find inner logarithmic slopes ranging from -1.6 to -2.1, as opposed to -1 for NFW). We define a useful metric of concentration, M_(1/10), which is the fraction of satellite galaxies (or mass) that are enclosed within one tenth of the virial radius of a halo. We find that M_(1/10) for low luminosity satellite galaxies agrees with NFW, whereas for luminous galaxies it is 2.5-4 times higher, demonstrating that these galaxies are substantially more centrally concentrated within their dark matter halos than the dark matter itself. Our results therefore suggest that the processes that govern the spatial distribution of galaxies, once they have merged into larger halos, must be luminosity dependent, such that luminous galaxies become poor tracers of the underlying dark matter.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, Accepted to Ap

Biochemical and Ultrastructural Changes in Tetrahymena pyriformis During Starvation *

Certain of the ultrastructural and biochemical changes occurring during the first 25 hr of starvation in Tetrahymena pyriformis were studied. Ultrastructurally, numerous profiles of degenerating mitochondria were seen in the early stages of starvation. The presence of oxidizable substrate such as glucose and acetate did not prevent this degeneration. Numerous large nucleoli were formed, many of which seemed to be passing into the cytoplasm as forming autophagic vacuoles. There was a transient increase in Oil Red O-positive bodies, presumably lipid (triglycerides). The extent and duration of this increase were pronounced in the presence of acetate. The lipid droplets appeared to arise within the cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum. Lipid reserves were apparently utilized prior to carbohydrates, as the disappearance of lipid droplets preceded glycogen utilization, both in the presence of acetate and in the absence of exogenous substrate. A considerable loss of cellular protein also occurred. In cells from inorganic medium supplemented with glucose, glycogen occupied much of the cell, leaving only islands of cell organelles. Acid phosphatase was localized, ultrastructurally, mainly in autophagic vacuoles which contained mitochondria and other cell organelles, and in association with small, double-membraned structures which seemed to be sequestering small areas of cytoplasm. Such sequestered areas also appeared within larger autophagic vacuoles. Residual bodies containing concentric whorls of myelin-like membranes surrounding a more solid core accumulated during starvation. Acid phosphatase activity decreased in amount but not in specific activity. The specific activity of cathespin doubled or tripled, but there was little change in total enzyme.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73300/1/j.1550-7408.1968.tb02113.x.pd

Three-Point Correlation Functions of SDSS Galaxies: Luminosity and Color Dependence in Redshift and Projected Space

The three-point correlation function (3PCF) provides an important view into the clustering of galaxies that is not available to its lower order cousin, the two-point correlation function (2PCF). Higher order statistics, such as the 3PCF, are necessary to probe the non-Gaussian structure and shape information expected in these distributions. We measure the clustering of spectroscopic galaxies in the Main Galaxy Sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), focusing on the shape or configuration dependence of the reduced 3PCF in both redshift and projected space. This work constitutes the largest number of galaxies ever used to investigate the reduced 3PCF, using over 220,000 galaxies in three volume-limited samples. We find significant configuration dependence of the reduced 3PCF at 3-27 Mpc/h, in agreement with LCDM predictions and in disagreement with the hierarchical ansatz. Below 6 Mpc/h, the redshift space reduced 3PCF shows a smaller amplitude and weak configuration dependence in comparison with projected measurements suggesting that redshift distortions, and not galaxy bias, can make the reduced 3PCF appear consistent with the hierarchical ansatz. The reduced 3PCF shows a weaker dependence on luminosity than the 2PCF, with no significant dependence on scales above 9 Mpc/h. On scales less than 9 Mpc/h, the reduced 3PCF appears more affected by galaxy color than luminosty. We demonstrate the extreme sensitivity of the 3PCF to systematic effects such as sky completeness and binning scheme, along with the difficulty of resolving the errors. Some comparable analyses make assumptions that do not consistently account for these effects.Comment: 27 pages, 21 figures. Updated to match accepted version. Published in Ap

Measuring D_A and H at z=0.35 from the SDSS DR7 LRGs using baryon acoustic oscillations

We present measurements of the angular diameter distance D_A(z) and the Hubble parameter H(z) at z=0.35 using the anisotropy of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) signal measured in the galaxy clustering distribution of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) Luminous Red Galaxies (LRG) sample. Our work is the first to apply density-field reconstruction to an anisotropic analysis of the acoustic peak. Reconstruction partially removes the effects of non-linear evolution and redshift-space distortions in order to sharpen the acoustic signal. We present the theoretical framework behind the anisotropic BAO signal and give a detailed account of the fitting model we use to extract this signal from the data. Our method focuses only on the acoustic peak anisotropy, rather than the more model-dependent anisotropic information from the broadband power. We test the robustness of our analysis methods on 160 LasDamas DR7 mock catalogues and find that our models are unbiased at the ~0.2% level in measuring the BAO anisotropy. After reconstruction we measure D_A(z=0.35)=1050+/-38 Mpc and H(z=0.35)=84.4+/-7.0 km/s/Mpc assuming a sound horizon of r_s=152.76 Mpc. Note that these measurements are correlated with a correlation coefficient of 0.58. This represents a factor of 1.4 improvement in the error on D_A relative to the pre-reconstruction case; a factor of 1.2 improvement is seen for H.Comment: 30 pages, 21 figures, accepted by MNRAS, updated to version accepted by journa

Automated Morphological Classification of SDSS Red Sequence Galaxies

(abridged) In the last decade, the advent of enormous galaxy surveys has motivated the development of automated morphological classification schemes to deal with large data volumes. Existing automated schemes can successfully distinguish between early and late type galaxies and identify merger candidates, but are inadequate for studying detailed morphologies of red sequence galaxies. To fill this need, we present a new automated classification scheme that focuses on making finer distinctions between early types roughly corresponding to Hubble types E, S0, and Sa. We visually classify a sample of 984 non-starforming SDSS galaxies with apparent sizes >14". We then develop an automated method to closely reproduce the visual classifications, which both provides a check on the visual results and makes it possible to extend morphological analysis to much larger samples. We visually classify the galaxies into three bulge classes (BC) by the shape of the light profile in the outer regions: discs have sharp edges and bulges do not, while some galaxies are intermediate. We separately identify galaxies with features: spiral arms, bars, clumps, rings, and dust. We find general agreement between BC and the bulge fraction B/T measured by the galaxy modeling package GIM2D, but many visual discs have B/T>0.5. Three additional automated parameters -- smoothness, axis ratio, and concentration -- can identify many of these high-B/T discs to yield automated classifications that agree ~70% with the visual classifications (>90% within one BC). Both methods are used to study the bulge vs. disc frequency as a function of four measures of galaxy 'size': luminosity, stellar mass, velocity dispersion, and radius. All size indicators show a fall in disc fraction and a rise in bulge fraction among larger galaxies.Comment: 24 pages, 20 figures, MNRAS accepte

Parallaxes and proper motions for 20 open clusters as based on the new Hipparcos catalogue

A new reduction of the astrometric data as produced by the Hipparcos mission has been published, claiming that the accuracies for nearly all stars brighter than magnitude $\mathrm{Hp}=8$ are improved, by up to a factor 4, compared to the original catalogue. As correlations between the underlying abscissa residuals have also been reduced by more than an order of magnitude to an insignificant level, our ability to determine reliable parallaxes and proper motions for open clusters should be improved. The new Hipparcos astrometric catalogue is used to derive mean parallax and proper motion estimates for 20 open clusters. The HR-diagrams of the nearest clusters are compared and combined to provide future input to sets of observational isochrones. The positions of the cluster HR diagrams are consistent within different groups of clusters shown for example by the near-perfect alignment of the sequences for the Hyades and Praesepe, for Coma Ber and UMa, and for the Pleiades, NGC 2516, and Blanco 1. The groups are mutually consistent when systematic differences in $\Delta c_0$ are taken into account, where the effect of these differences on the absolute magnitudes has been calibrated using field-star observations.Comment: 34 pages, 36 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication by A&

The Morphology of Galaxies in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

We study the morphology of luminous and massive galaxies at 0.3<z<0.7 targeted in the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) using publicly available Hubble Space Telescope imaging from COSMOS. Our sample (240 objects) provides a unique opportunity to check the visual morphology of these galaxies which were targeted based solely on stellar population modelling. We find that the majority (74+/-6%) possess an early-type morphology (elliptical or S0), while the remainder have a late-type morphology. This is as expected from the goals of the BOSS target selection which aimed to predominantly select slowly evolving galaxies, for use as cosmological probes, while still obtaining a fair fraction of actively star forming galaxies for galaxy evolution studies. We show that a colour cut of (g-i)>2.35 selects a sub-sample of BOSS galaxies with 90% early-type morphology - more comparable to the earlier Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) samples of SDSS-I/II. The remaining 10% of galaxies above this cut have a late-type morphology and may be analogous to the "passive spirals" found at lower redshift. We find that 23+/-4% of the early-type galaxies are unresolved multiple systems in the SDSS imaging. We estimate that at least 50% of these are real associations (not projection effects) and may represent a significant "dry merger" fraction. We study the SDSS pipeline sizes of BOSS galaxies which we find to be systematically larger (by 40%) than those measured from HST images, and provide a statistical correction for the difference. These details of the BOSS galaxies will help users of the data fine-tune their selection criteria, dependent on their science applications. For example, the main goal of BOSS is to measure the cosmic distance scale and expansion rate of the Universe to percent-level precision - a point where systematic effects due to the details of target selection may become important.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures; v2 as accepted by MNRA