Understanding women's feelings about safety and hazards of street drinking in London through interpretative phenomenological analysis

Aims Drinking alcohol in outdoor public places (e.g. streets and parks) and outside of formally organised events is perceived and reported as antisocial behaviour and may be indicative of a problematic relationship with alcohol, and other clinical needs. This paper aims to address a lack of qualitative research on street drinking in the United Kingdom and develop a textured understanding of the lived-experience of how some women engage in street drinking, in the context of one London borough. Method The authors collected semi-structured interviews as part of a larger mixed methods study on street drinking from April to August 2018. A sub-set of interviews (n = 3) with women who were accessing local drug and alcohol services and had a history of street drinking behaviour were selected as a case series for triangulating analysis with a smaller, homogenous sample. These data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis with a reflexive, feminist, social constructionist approach. Results The authors developed and named a superordinate theme, Constellations of Safety and Hazards for Women Drinking in Public and Private. Within this, four themes were defined and illustrated from the data: Drinking outdoors to be away from hazards at home; Women's awareness of geo-temporal factors to moderate risk; Women identifying risks of accepting drinks from strangers; and Threats of untreated trauma within histories of heavy drinking. Definitions and illustrations from participants aid explanations of how the texts add detail or disruption to dominant discourses. Conclusion The case studies illustrating how these women have experienced alcohol misuse and behaviour change provide reflexive accounts of exercising agency in managing embodied and affective states of vulnerability. This was demonstrated by asserting choice around environmental spaces and friendships, even when still in positions deemed as ‘risky’. These three women's decisions around drinking in public, outdoor spaces were shaped by complex interactions of interpersonal, intrapersonal, socio-economic, and cultural structures. Understanding behaviours is improved with data that situates people in contexts where they experience and make sense of their lives

Spectral Redundancy for Calibrating Interferometers and Suppressing the Foreground Wedge in 21\,cm Cosmology

Observations of 21\,cm line from neutral hydrogen promise to be an exciting new probe of astrophysics and cosmology during the Cosmic Dawn and through the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) to when dark energy accelerates the expansion of the Universe. At each of these epochs, separating bright foregrounds from the cosmological signal is a primary challenge that requires exquisite calibration. In this paper, we present a new calibration method called \textsc{nucal} that extends redundant-baseline calibration, allowing spectral variation in antenna responses to be solved for by using correlations between visibilities measuring the same angular Fourier modes at different frequencies. By modeling the chromaticity of the beam-weighted sky with a tunable set of discrete prolate spheroidal sequences (DPSS), we develop a calibration loop that optimizes for spectrally smooth calibrated visibilities. Crucially, this technique does not require explicit models of the sky or the primary beam. With simulations that incorporate realistic source and beam chromaticity, we show that this method solves for unsmooth bandpass features, exposes narrowband interference systematics, and suppresses smooth-spectrum foregrounds below the level of 21\,cm reionization models, even within much of the so-called "wedge" region where current foreground mitigation techniques struggle. We show that this foreground subtraction can be performed with minimal cosmological signal loss for certain well-sampled angular Fourier modes, making spectral-redundant calibration a promising technique for current and next-generation 21\,cm intensity mapping experiments.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, Submitted to MNRA

Exploring the uptake and use of electronic cigarettes provided to smokers accessing homeless centres: a four-centre cluster feasibility trial

Background: Smoking prevalence is extremely high in adults experiencing homelessness, and there is little evidence regarding which cessation interventions work best. This study explored the feasibility of providing free electronic cigarette starter kits to smokers accessing homeless centres in the UK. / Objectives: Seven key objectives were examined to inform a future trial: (1) assess willingness of smokers to participate in the study to estimate recruitment rates; (2) assess participant retention in the intervention and control arms; (3) examine the perceived value of the intervention, facilitators of and barriers to engagement, and influence of local context; (4) assess service providers’ capacity to support the study and the type of information and training required; (5) assess the potential efficacy of supplying free electronic cigarette starter kits; (6) explore the feasibility of collecting data on contacts with health-care services as an input to a main economic evaluation; and (7) estimate the cost of providing the intervention and usual care. / Design: A prospective cohort four-centre pragmatic cluster feasibility study with embedded qualitative process evaluation. / Setting: Four homeless centres. Two residential units in London, England. One day centre in Northampton, England. One day centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. / Intervention: In the intervention arm, a single refillable electronic cigarette was provided together with e-liquid, which was provided once per week for 4 weeks (choice of three flavours: fruit, menthol or tobacco; two nicotine strengths: 12 or 18 mg/ml). There was written information on electronic cigarette use and support. In the usual-care arm, written information on quitting smoking (adapted from NHS Choices) and signposting to the local stop smoking service were provided. / Results: Fifty-two per cent of eligible participants invited to take part in the study were successfully recruited (56% in the electronic cigarette arm; 50.5% in the usual-care arm; total n = 80). Retention rates were 75%, 63% and 59% at 4, 12 and 24 weeks, respectively. The qualitative component found that perceived value of the intervention was high. Barriers were participants’ personal difficulties and cannabis use. Facilitators were participants’ desire to change, free electronic cigarettes and social dynamics. Staff capacity to support the study was generally good. Carbon monoxide-validated sustained abstinence rates at 24 weeks were 6.25% (3/48) in the electronic cigarette arm compared with 0% (0/32) in the usual-care arm (intention to treat). Almost all participants present at follow-up visits completed measures needed for input into an economic evaluation, although information about staff time to support usual care could not be gathered. The cost of providing the electronic cigarette intervention was estimated at £114.42 per person. An estimated cost could not be calculated for usual care. / Limitations: Clusters could not be fully randomised because of a lack of centre readiness. The originally specified recruitment target was not achieved and recruitment was particularly difficult in residential centres. Blinding was not possible for the measurement of outcomes. Staff time supporting usual care could not be collected. / Conclusions: The study was associated with reasonable recruitment and retention rates and promising acceptability in the electronic cigarette arm. Data required for full cost-effectiveness evaluation in the electronic cigarette arm could be collected, but some data were not available in the usual-care arm. / Future work: Future research should focus on several key issues to help design optimal studies and interventions with this population, including which types of centres the intervention works best in, how best to retain participants in the study, how to help staff to deliver the intervention, and how best to record staff treatment time given the demands on their time. / Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN14140672; the protocol was registered as researchregistry4346. / Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 9, No. 7. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information

Spatial mapping of hematopoietic clones in human bone marrow

UNLABELLED: Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) is the expansion of somatically mutated cells in the hematopoietic compartment of individuals without hematopoietic dysfunction. Large CH clones (i.e., \u3e2% variant allele fraction) predispose to hematologic malignancy, but CH is detected at lower levels in nearly all middle-aged individuals. Prior work has extensively characterized CH in peripheral blood, but the spatial distribution of hematopoietic clones in human bone marrow is largely undescribed. To understand CH at this level, we developed a method for spatially aware somatic mutation profiling and characterized the bone marrow of a patient with polycythemia vera. We identified the complex clonal distribution of somatic mutations in the hematopoietic compartment, the restriction of somatic mutations to specific subpopulations of hematopoietic cells, and spatial constraints of these clones in the bone marrow. This proof of principle paves the way to answering fundamental questions regarding CH spatial organization and factors driving CH expansion and malignant transformation in the bone marrow. SIGNIFICANCE: CH occurs commonly in humans and can predispose to hematologic malignancy. Although well characterized in blood, it is poorly understood how clones are spatially distributed in the bone marrow. To answer this, we developed methods for spatially aware somatic mutation profiling to describe clonal heterogeneity in human bone marrow. See related commentary by Austin and Aifantis, p. 139

Exploring the uptake and use of electronic cigarettes provided to smokers accessing homeless centres: a four-centre cluster feasibility trial

Background Smoking prevalence is extremely high in adults experiencing homelessness and there is little evidence regarding which cessation interventions work best. This study explored the feasibility of providing free e-cigarette (EC) starter kits to smokers accessing homeless centres in the UK Objectives Seven key objectives were examined to inform a future trial. 1: Assess willingness of smokers to participate in the study to estimate recruitment rates. 2: Assess participant retention in the intervention and control groups. 3: Examine the perceived value of the intervention, facilitators and barriers to engagement and influence of local context. 4: Assess service providers’ capacity to support the study and the type of information and training required. 5: Assess the potential efficacy of supplying free EC starter kits. 6: Explore the feasibility of collecting data on contact with health care services as an input to a main economic evaluation. 7: Estimate the cost of providing the intervention and usual care. Design A prospective cohort four-centre pragmatic cluster feasibility study with embedded qualitative process evaluation. Setting Four homeless centres. Two residential units in London, England. One day centre in Northampton, England. One day centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. Intervention Intervention arm: A single refillable EC was provided with e-liquid provided once a week for four weeks (choice of three flavours: fruit, menthol, tobacco and two nicotine strengths: 12mg/mL or 18mg/mL). Written information for EC use and support. Usual care arm: Written information on quitting smoking (adapted from NHS Choices) and signposting to the local stop smoking service (SSS). Results Fifty-two percent of eligible participants invited to take part in the study were successfully recruited (56% in the EC arm; 50.5% in the UC arm; total N=80). Retention rates were 75%, 63% and 59% respectively at 4, 12 and 24 weeks. The qualitative component found perceived value of the intervention was high. Barriers were participant’s personal difficulties and cannabis use. Facilitators were participants’ desire to change, free EC and social dynamics. Staff capacity to support the study was generally good. Carbon Monoxide (CO) validated sustained abstinence rates at 24 weeks were 6.25% (3/48) in the EC arm vs. 0/32 (0%) in the UC arm (intention to treat). Almost all participants present at follow-up visits completed measures needed for input into an economic evaluation although information about staff time to support UC could not be gathered. The cost of providing the EC intervention was estimated to be £114.42 per person. Estimated cost could not be completed for UC. Limitations Clusters could not be fully randomised due to lack of centre readiness. The originally specified recruitment target was not achieved and recruitment was particularly difficult in residential centres. Blinding was not possible for the measurement of outcomes. Staff time supporting UC could not be collected. Conclusions The study was associated with reasonable recruitment and retention rates and promising acceptability in the EC arm. Data required for full cost-effectiveness evaluation in the EC arm could be collected but some data was not available in the UC arm. Future work: Future research should focus on several key issues to help design optimal studies and interventions with this population, including: which types of centres the intervention works best in; how best to retain participants in the study; how to help staff to deliver the intervention and how best to record staff treatment time given the demands on their time

Air Data Boom System Development for the Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) Flight Experiment

In 2007, the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) chartered the NASA Engineering Safety Center (NESC) to demonstrate an alternate launch abort concept as risk mitigation for the Orion project's baseline "tower" design. On July 8, 2009, a full scale and passively, aerodynamically stabilized MLAS launch abort demonstrator was successfully launched from Wallops Flight Facility following nearly two years of development work on the launch abort concept: from a napkin sketch to a flight demonstration of the full-scale flight test vehicle. The MLAS flight test vehicle was instrumented with a suite of aerodynamic sensors. The purpose was to obtain sufficient data to demonstrate that the vehicle demonstrated the behavior predicted by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis and wind tunnel testing. This paper describes development of the Air Data Boom (ADB) component of the aerodynamic sensor suite

Transport properties of strongly correlated metals:a dynamical mean-field approach

The temperature dependence of the transport properties of the metallic phase of a frustrated Hubbard model on the hypercubic lattice at half-filling are calculated. Dynamical mean-field theory, which maps the Hubbard model onto a single impurity Anderson model that is solved self-consistently, and becomes exact in the limit of large dimensionality, is used. As the temperature increases there is a smooth crossover from coherent Fermi liquid excitations at low temperatures to incoherent excitations at high temperatures. This crossover leads to a non-monotonic temperature dependence for the resistance, thermopower, and Hall coefficient, unlike in conventional metals. The resistance smoothly increases from a quadratic temperature dependence at low temperatures to large values which can exceed the Mott-Ioffe-Regel value, hbar a/e^2 (where "a" is a lattice constant) associated with mean-free paths less than a lattice constant. Further signatures of the thermal destruction of quasiparticle excitations are a peak in the thermopower and the absence of a Drude peak in the optical conductivity. The results presented here are relevant to a wide range of strongly correlated metals, including transition metal oxides, strontium ruthenates, and organic metals.Comment: 19 pages, 9 eps figure

Signaling in Secret: Pay-for-Performance and the Incentive and Sorting Effects of Pay Secrecy

Key Findings: Pay secrecy adversely impacts individual task performance because it weakens the perception that an increase in performance will be accompanied by increase in pay; Pay secrecy is associated with a decrease in employee performance and retention in pay-for-performance systems, which measure performance using relative (i.e., peer-ranked) criteria rather than an absolute scale (see Figure 2 on page 5); High performing employees tend to be most sensitive to negative pay-for- performance perceptions; There are many signals embedded within HR policies and practices, which can influence employees’ perception of workplace uncertainty/inequity and impact their performance and turnover intentions; and When pay transparency is impractical, organizations may benefit from introducing partial pay openness to mitigate these effects on employee performance and retention