Use of the BT2 water line list to determine the rotational temperature and H2O column density of the circumstellar envelope on five dates

BT2 is the most accurate and complete synthetic water line list in existence; it includes over 505 million transitions. BT2 spectra generated at various temperatures and column densities were fitted to observed H band spectra of V838 Mon recorded on 5 dates between 20 Nov. 2002 and 25 Dec. 2004. Five absorption features in the observed spectra were identified as being due to water. With one exception, where there was a single strong water line, all of the featues were blends of water lines. 17 individual water lines were assigned and the rotational temperatures and H2O column densities of the circumstellar ejected envelope were determined for each of the five dates

Unraveling the Infrared Transient VVV-WIT-06: The Case for the Origin as a Classical Nova

Indexación: Scopus.E.Y.H. acknowledges the support provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-1613472 and by the Florida Space Grant Consortium. L.G. acknowledges support from the FINCA visitor programme. The research work at the Physical Research Laboratory is funded by the Department of Space, Government of India. Facility: Magellan: Baade(FIRE).The enigmatic near-infrared transient VVV-WIT-06 underwent a large-amplitude eruption of unclear origin in 2013 July. Based on its light curve properties and late-time post-outburst spectra, various possibilities have been proposed in the literature for the origin of the object, namely a Type I supernova, a classical nova (CN), or a violent stellar merger event. We show that, of these possibilities, an origin in a CN outburst convincingly explains the observed properties of VVV-WIT-06. We estimate that the absolute K-band magnitude of the nova at maximum was M k = -8.2 ±0.5, its distance d = 13.35 ±2.18 kpc, and the extinction A v = 15.0 ±0.55 mag. © 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aae5d

Effectiveness of an intervention for managing victimization risks related to societal participation for persons with severe mental illness: A cluster RCT study protocol

Background: People with severe mental illness (SMI) are more likely to experience criminal victimization than other community members. In addition, (self-) stigma and perceived discrimination are highly prevalent in this group. These adversities in the social context often have major adverse effects on the rehabilitation and recovery of these persons. Current practice, however, lacks instruments to address these issues. As a reaction, the Victoria intervention was developed and pilot-tested with client representatives, professionals, trainers and researchers. The Victoria intervention is a method for community mental health care workers to expand their awareness of this topic and support them in assessing victimization and incorporate appropriate services, including trauma screening and rehabilitation services, in their health care planning. For clients, the Victoria intervention aims to increase their awareness, active management of possible victimization risks and promote safe social participation. As a new intervention, little is known about its use in real practice and its effects on client outcomes. Methods/design: To determine the feasibility and effectiveness of this intervention, a process evaluation and a first cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be carried out. Outpatients from eight Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (F-ACT) teams from two mental health care (MHC) organizations in the Netherlands are included in the study. Teams in the intervention group will receive three half-day training sessions, and bi-monthly supervision meetings for 18months. Teams in the control group provide care as usual. For the process evaluation, a multi-method design is used. To assess effects on client outcomes, clients will be interviewed about their experiences on victimization and societal participation using validated questionnaires at baseline, and after 9 and 18months. Discussion: This study is the first to evaluate an intervention aiming at recognition of victimization, (self-) stigma and perceived discrimination, and targeting outpatients' insights into possible risks and coping skills to tackle these risks to enhance safe societal participation. Results of this study may validate the Victoria intervention as a practice to better manage risk for adversities related to societal participation

Factors Influence on Changes of Population Growth in Sri Lanka: From 1970 to 2019

This research held in Sri Lanka since the population growth has changed during 1970 – 2019 period due to various factors. Factors influence on changes of population growth rate in any country is caused to create social and economic problems. Then, if it has changed what factors are influencing, should be studied. Therefore, this research aims to identify the reasonable factors behind the changes in Sri Lankan population growth rate through around a half-century. Secondary data from the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) and annual data from 1970 to 2019 from official websites of the United Nations were used for the main analysis. Data processing and analysis were performed by using descriptive-quantitative method and multiple regression analysis. The result of this research indicates that changes of population growth rate in Sri Lanka is significantly affected by crude birth rate, crude death rate and infant mortality rate. The multiple regression analysis had fitted a good model that explains 95.5 percent of total variability of the population growth rate. The findings show that the decline of the population growth rate was highly influenced by the decline of the crude birth rate. Therefore, the researcher recommends that Sri Lankan government should take an action to aware of the people to increasing the fertility rate of Sri Lanka. It should be implemented awareness programs related to fertility and reproductive health among both males and females in reproductive age groups and make policies to re-structure the education system in Sri Lanka.  KEYWORDS: Factors Influence, Population growth rate, Crude birth rate, Crude death rate, Infant mortality rat

DETERMINANTS OF THE ADOPTION OF TECHNOLOGY BASED SELF-BANKING SYSTEM - EVIDENCE FROM SRI LANKA

Banking industry is a crucial industry in the Sri Lankan economy. With the development of technology, the self-banking concept has been introduced in the island and it has now become an integral part to both customers as well as the banking institutions. Therefore, this study focused on the determinants of the technology based self-banking system in Sri Lanka. The main objective of the study was to identify whether usefulness, ease of use, risk and contribution of banking institutions can be a determinant on the adoption of the self-banking system in Sri Lanka. This research tries to make an extension to the Technology Acceptance Model introduced by Davis, (1989). The quantitative data were gathered using a structured questionnaire and the sample size was 164. Cluster sampling was used. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analytical methods were applied to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that there was a moderately high level of self-banking adoption. Furthermore, there is a significantly strong positive relationship between perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use with the adoption of self-banking, while the risk and contribution of banking institutions imply a weak positive relationship with the adoption of self-banking. On one hand, the Multiple regression analysis recognized that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are significant determinants for the adoption of self-banking. On the other hand, the risk and contribution of banking institutions do not determine cause of adoption of self-banking. Moreover, usefulness determines the increment in the adoption level of customers more than the ease of use. According to the results of the study, it can be suggested to the banking authorities to build and maintain self-banking technologies in a way that they would increase the usefulness to the customers.   Keywords: Self-banking, Self-service banking, Technology Acceptance Mode

Social Capital and Access to Credit by Farmer Based Organizations in the Karaga District of Northern Ghana

Farmer Based Organization (FBO) is one of the key support service actors in agricultural value chains in developing economies. The dimensions of the FBOs that constitute social capital and how they enhance access to credit are the concern of this study.  Information was collected from 210 FBO members and non-members in the Karaga district of Northern Ghana, where FBO activities and agricultural credit services have increased in the last decade. The analytical methods used include principal component analysis-PCA and logistic regression analysis (logit model). The major finding was that the dimensions of social capital such as homogeneity, network connection, level of trust, collective action and the respect for contract had positive significant effect on access to credit. Given the positive effect of the FBOs’ social capital on access to credit, it is recommended that FBO members should make conscious effort to strengthen their FBOs along the social capital dimensions. Officers of financial service organizations tasked to prime FBOs for agricultural credit programs should prime them based on these dimensions. Keywords: social capital dimensions, FBOs, access to credit, social network

Predicting initial client engagement with community mental health services by routinely measured data

Engagement is a determinant of how well a person will respond to professional input. This study investigates whether, in practice, routinely measured data predict initial client engagement with community mental health services. Engagement, problem severity, client characteristics, and duration before the first contact were measured at team entrance with clients (n = 529) of three community mental health teams. Regression analysis was used to predict engagement. Gender, age, referrer, having children, having a partner, and ethnicity showed a minor relationship with engagement. Higher problem severity measured by the team members with the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales, being referred for having psychiatric problems and/or causing severe and long-lasting trouble (as ‘assessed’ by the often non-professional referrer), and a longer duration between enrollment and the first conversation with a client, were indicative for a lower engagement. The final model explained 19.2 % of the variance in engagement. It can be concluded that initial client engagement with community mental health services can be predicted, in part, by routinely measured data. The findings can be used by community mental healthcare teams to create an awareness system

Historic Total Fertility Rates of Sri Lanka (1960 – 2021) and Future Trends

Fertility is one of the key components that determine the population change in Sri Lanka. Total Fertility Rates (TFR) are the average number of children a woman would have by the end of her childbearing years (15-49) if she bore children at the current age-specific fertility rates. The average has been declining over the past decade in Sri Lanka. It is essential to understand the trends and patterns of TFR in that aspect to enhance the quality of predetermined long-term economic, health and educational plans as well the policy implements in the country. The main objective of the study is to identify the trends and patterns of historic Total Fertility Rates of Sri Lanka (1960 – 2021) and future trends. The study carries out based on the secondary data on TFR extracted from World Bank data (1960-2021). Initially, the univariate time series analysis was utilized to identify the pattern of TFR using the R Statistical software. This study revealed that there is a decreasing future trend in TFR using ARIMA (1, 2, 1) model which was fitted as the best model to forecast the future behavior TFR. The fitted model was. The forecasted TFR values for the period from 2022 to 2026 were 1.9577, 1.9372, 1.9167, 1.8963 and 1.8758 respectively. It is suggested to have a comparative study on fertility trends and patterns with consideration of socioeconomic and cultural factors in Sri Lanka since TFR varies due to socioeconomic and cultural diversity