Training of Trainers (ToT) in essential EAFM, 30 June - 3 July, 2013, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

This built upon the previous Essential EAFM course. Participants were exposed to concepts about adult learning, course preparation,, participation engagement and how to deliver and manage interactive training sessions

Report of the pilot EAFM course, 23-28 June, 2013, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Participants were exposed to concepts and information about EAFM using a structured, participatory method of delivery. The learning strategy involved pre- and post-course assessment as well as 4-6 month follow up at outcome level to assess improves EAFM practices. The report outlines methodology details of content and the daily feedback process

Awareness of stress-reduction interventions on work attitudes: the impact of tenure and staff group in Australian universities

This study explored the impact of staff group role and length of organizational tenure in the relationship between the awareness of stress interventions (termed intervention awareness: IA) and the work-related attitudinal outcomes of university employees. A two-wave longitudinal study of a sample of 869 employees from 13 universities completed a psychosocial work factors and health questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analyses examined the contribution of staff role and different lengths of organizational tenure with IA and employees' reports of job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, trust in senior management, and perceived procedural justice. Employees' length of tenure affected the relation between IA and work attitudes, and there were also differences between academic and non-academic staff groups. For non-academic employees, IA predicted job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, trust in senior management, and perceived procedural justice. However, for academics, IA only predicted job satisfaction and trust which identifies a need to increase the visibility of organizational interventions. Across the tenure groups, IA predicted: (1) perceived procedural justice for employees with five or less years of tenure; (2) job satisfaction for employees with 0-19 years of tenure; (3) trust in senior management for employees with 6-19 years of tenure; and (4) affective organizational commitment for employees with a tenure length of 6-10 years. Employees working at the university for an intermediate period had the most positive perceptions of their organization in terms of IA, job satisfaction, trust in senior management, and affective organizational commitment, whereas employees with 20-38 years of tenure had the least positive perceptions. Results suggest that employees in the middle of their careers report the most positive perceptions of their university. The findings highlight the need to attend to contextual issues in organizational stress and wellbeing interventions and suggest that management may need to implement new strategies and/or promote existing stress-management and reduction strategies to academics, and employees whom are either new to the university or those who have been working for the organization for longer periods of time to ensure that they are aware of organizational strategies to promote employee wellbeing and morale within their work environments.Silvia Pignata, Anthony H. Winefield, Chris Provis and Carolyn M. Boy

JINA-NuGrid Galactic Chemical Evolution Pipeline

Galactic chemical evolution is a topic that involves nuclear physics, stellar evolution, galaxy evolution, observation, and cosmology. Continuous communication and feedback between these fields is a key component in improving our understanding of how galaxies form and how elements are created and recycled in galaxies and intergalactic space. In this proceedings, we present the current state of the JINA-NuGrid chemical evolution pipeline. It is designed to probe the impact of nuclear astrophysics uncertainties on galactic chemical evolution, to improve our knowledges regarding the origin of the elements in a cosmological context, and to create the required interdisciplinary connections.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, submitted to JPS Conference Proceedings, Nuclei in the Cosmos XI

Earliest Directly-Dated Human Skull-Cups

The use of human braincases as drinking cups and containers has extensive historic and ethnographic documentation, but archaeological examples are extremely rare. In the Upper Palaeolithic of western Europe, cut-marked and broken human bones are widespread in the Magdalenian (∼15 to 12,000 years BP) and skull-cup preparation is an element of this tradition

Evidence for a large fraction of Compton-thick quasars at high redshift

Using mid-infrared and radio selection criteria, we pre-select a sample of candidate high-redshift type-2 quasars in the Subaru XMM-Newton Deep Field (SXDF). To filter out starburst contaminants, we use a bayesian method to fit the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) between 24-microns and B-band, obtain photometric redshifts, and identify the best candidates for high-z type-2 quasars. This leaves us with 12 z_phot >= 1.7 type-2 quasar candidates in an area ~0.8 deg^2, of which only two have secure X-ray detections. The two detected sources have estimated column densities N_H~2 & 3x10^27 m^-2, i.e. heavily obscured but Compton-thin quasars. Given the large bolometric luminosities and redshifts of the undetected objects, the lack of X-ray detections suggests extreme absorbing columns N_H >= 10^28 m^-2 are typical. We have found evidence for a population of ``Compton-thick'' high-redshift type-2 quasars, at least comparable to, and probably larger than the type-1 quasar population, although spectroscopic confirmation of their AGN nature is important.Comment: 6 pages, 2 colour figures. Accepted by MNRAS. Full resolution version and supplementary figures can be found at: http://www.mpia.de/homes/martinez/publications.htm

What can abelian gauge theories teach us about kinematic algebras?

The phenomenon of BCJ duality implies that gauge theories possess an abstract kinematic algebra, mirroring the non-abelian Lie algebra underlying the colour information. Although the nature of the kinematic algebra is known in certain cases, a full understanding is missing for arbitrary non-abelian gauge theories, such that one typically works outwards from well-known examples. In this paper, we pursue an orthogonal approach, and argue that simpler abelian gauge theories can be used as a testing ground for clarifying our understanding of kinematic algebras. We first describe how classes of abelian gauge fields are associated with well-defined subgroups of the diffeomorphism algebra. By considering certain special subgroups, we show that one may construct interacting theories, whose kinematic algebras are inherited from those already appearing in a related abelian theory. Known properties of (anti-)self-dual Yang-Mills theory arise in this way, but so do new generalisations, including self-dual electromagnetism coupled to scalar matter. Furthermore, a recently obtained non-abelian generalisation of the Navier-Stokes equation fits into a similar scheme, as does Chern-Simons theory. Our results provide useful input to further conceptual studies of kinematic algebras.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figure

Design, prototyping and testing of a compact superconducting double quarter wave crab cavity

A novel design of superconducting Crab Cavity was proposed and designed at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The new cavity shape is a Double Quarter Wave or DQWCC. After fabrication and surface treatments, the niobium proof-of-principle cavity was cryogenically tested in a vertical cryostat. The cavity is extremely compact yet has a low frequency of 400 MHz, an essential property for service for the Large Hadron Collider luminosity upgrade. The electromagnetic properties of the cavity are also well matched for this demanding task. The demonstrated deflecting voltage of 4.6 MV is well above the requirement for a crab cavity in the future High Luminosity LHC of 3.34 MV. In this paper we present the design, prototyping and test results of the DQWCC.Comment: to be published in Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beam

A luminosity distribution for kilonovae based on short gamma-ray burst afterglows

The combined detection of a gravitational-wave signal, kilonova, and short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) from GW170817 marked a scientific breakthrough in the field of multi-messenger astronomy. But even before GW170817, there have been a number of sGRBs with possible associated kilonova detections. In this work, we re-examine these "historical" sGRB afterglows with a combination of state-of-the-art afterglow and kilonova models. This allows us to include optical/near-infrared synchrotron emission produced by the sGRB as well as ultraviolet/optical/near-infrared emission powered by the radioactive decay of $r$-process elements (i.e., the kilonova). Fitting the lightcurves, we derive the velocity and the mass distribution as well as the composition of the ejected material. The posteriors on kilonova parameters obtained from the fit were turned into distributions for the peak magnitude of the kilonova emission in different bands and the time at which this peak occurs. From the sGRB with an associated kilonova, we found that the peak magnitude in H bands falls in the range [-16.2, -13.1] ($95\%$ of confidence) and occurs within $0.8-3.6\,\rm days$ after the sGRB prompt emission. In g band instead we obtain a peak magnitude in range [-16.8, -12.3] occurring within the first $18\,\rm hr$ after the sGRB prompt. From the luminosity distributions of GW170817/AT2017gfo, kilonova candidates GRB130603B, GRB050709 and GRB060614 (with the possible inclusion of GRB150101B) and the upper limits from all the other sGRBs not associated with any kilonova detection we obtain for the first time a kilonova luminosity function in different bands.Comment: Published in MNRAS, 24 pages, 14 figure