Gamma-ray bursts and X-ray melting of material as a potential source of chondrules and planets

The intense radiation from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) is shown to be capable of melting stony material at distances up to 300 light years which subsequently cool to form chondrules. These conditions were created in the laboratory for the first time when millimeter sized pellets were placed in a vacuum chamber in the white synchrotron beam at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). The pellets were rapidly heated in the X-ray and gamma-ray furnace to above 1400 C melted and cooled. This process heats from the inside unlike normal furnaces. The melted spherical samples were examined with a range of techniques and found to have microstructural properties similar to the chondrules that come from meteorites. This experiment demonstrates that GRBs can melt precursor material to form chondrules that may subsequently influence the formation of planets. This work extends the field of laboratory astrophysics to include high power synchrotron sources.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figures. Proceedings of the 5th INTEGRAL Workshop, Munich 16-20 February 2004. High resolution figures available at http://bermuda.ucd.ie/%7Esmcbreen/papers/duggan_01.pd

How to Perform Umbilical Cord Arterial and Venous Blood Sampling in Neonatal Foals

Umbilical cord arterial and venous blood gas analysis is a commonly performed procedure in human neonatal medicine to help ascertain a newborn infant’s oxygenation and acid-base status prior to birth. Defined protocols for performing the procedure have been described in the medical literature. The aim of this report was to describe in detail the procedure for collecting paired blood samples from the umbilical artery and vein in newborn foals so that stall-side blood gas analysis could be carried out. Thirty-five Thoroughbred foals >320 days gestation from mares at one stud farm were sampled. Paired umbilical arterial and venous whole-blood samples were obtained in n=30 foals, umbilical artery only samples obtained in n=3 and umbilical vein only samples obtained in n=2 foals. There were no adverse events or clinical outcomes associated with the sampling protocol described. The authors found that umbilical cord blood collection for blood gas analysis was a practical clinical technique that potentially could be used as a stall-side method for assessing the in utero oxygenation and acid-base status of newborn foals

Issues in Performance Assessments for Disposal of U.S. Department of Energy Low-Level Waste

The US Department of Energy (DOE) and its contractors have long been pioneers in the field of radiological performance assessment (PA). Much effort has been expended in developing technology and acquiring data to facilitate the assessment process. This is reflected in DOE Order 5820.2A, Radioactive Waste Management Chapter III of the Order lists policy and requirements to manage the DOEs low-level waste; performance objectives for low-level waste management are stated to ensure the protection of public health and the environment. A radiological PA is also required to demonstrate compliance with the performance objectives. DOE Order 5820.2A further requires that an Oversight and Peer Review Panel be established to ensure consistency and technical quality around the DOE complex in the development and application of PA models that include site-specific geohydrology and waste composition. The DOE has also established a Performance Assessment Task Team (PATT) to integrate the activities of sites that are preparing PAs. The PATT`s purpose is to recommend policy and guidance to DOE on issues that impact PAs so that the approaches taken are as consistent as possible across the DOE complex

Why is there no queer international theory?

Over the last decade, Queer Studies have become Global Queer Studies, generating significant insights into key international political processes. Yet, the transformation from Queer to Global Queer has left the discipline of International Relations largely unaffected, which begs the question: if Queer Studies has gone global, why has the discipline of International Relations not gone somewhat queer? Or, to put it in Martin Wight’s provocative terms, why is there no Queer International Theory? This article claims that the presumed non-existence of Queer International Theory is an effect of how the discipline of International Relations combines homologization, figuration, and gentrification to code various types of theory as failures in order to manage the conduct of international theorizing in all its forms. This means there are generalizable lessons to be drawn from how the discipline categorizes Queer International Theory out of existence to bring a specific understanding of International Relations into existence

The Broad Absorption Line Tidal Disruption Event iPTF15af: Optical and Ultraviolet Evolution

We present multi-wavelength observations of the tidal disruption event (TDE) iPTF15af, discovered by the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) survey at redshift $z=0.07897$. The optical and ultraviolet (UV) light curves of the transient show a slow decay over five months, in agreement with previous optically discovered TDEs. It also has a comparable black-body peak luminosity of $L_{\rm{peak}} \approx 1.5 \times 10^{44}$ erg/s. The inferred temperature from the optical and UV data shows a value of (3$-$5) $\times 10^4$ K. The transient is not detected in X-rays up to $L_X < 3 \times 10^{42}$erg/s within the first five months after discovery. The optical spectra exhibit two distinct broad emission lines in the He II region, and at later times also H$\alpha$ emission. Additionally, emission from [N III] and [O III] is detected, likely produced by the Bowen fluorescence effect. UV spectra reveal broad emission and absorption lines associated with high-ionization states of N V, C IV, Si IV, and possibly P V. These features, analogous to those of broad absorption line quasars (BAL QSOs), require an absorber with column densities $N_{\rm{H}} > 10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$. This optically thick gas would also explain the non-detection in soft X-rays. The profile of the absorption lines with the highest column density material at the largest velocity is opposite that of BAL QSOs. We suggest that radiation pressure generated by the TDE flare at early times could have provided the initial acceleration mechanism for this gas. Spectral UV line monitoring of future TDEs could test this proposal.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, published in Ap

The face validity of an initial sub-typology of people with autism spectrum disorders detained in psychiatric hospitals

Autistic adults who have a history of committing crimes present a major problem for providers of services in terms of legal disposal options and possible interventions, and greater understanding of this group and their associated needs is required. For this reason, we aimed to investigate the face validity of a proposed sub-typology of autistic adults detained in secure psychiatric hospitals in the United Kingdom. Initially, a focus group was completed with psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, healthcare workers, family members, and autistic adults who had been detained in hospital, leading to revisions of the sub-typology. Following this, a consensus rating exercise of ten clinical vignettes based upon this subtypology with three rounds was completed with fifteen psychiatrists and clinical psychologists; revisions to the vignettes to improve clarity were made following each round. The findings indicated these subtypes possess face validity and raters were able to classify all ten clinical case vignettes into the sub-typology and percentage of agreement ranged from 96% to 100% for overall subtype classification. This study suggests that the further validity of the sub-typology should be investigated within a larger study, as these sub-types have the potential to directly inform the hospital care-pathway such that length of stay can be minimised

Assay of matrix metalloproteinases types 1, 2, 3 and 9 in breast cancer.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are zinc dependent endopeptidases implicated in cancer invasion and metastasis. Gelatin zymography was performed on 84 human breast carcinomas and seven normal breast tissues. The precursor form of MMP-2 (72 kDa) was found in 11 (12%) samples, while its two activated forms, i.e. 62 kDa and 59 kDa, were found in three (6%) and 34 (40%) samples respectively. In contrast to MMP-2, most of the samples (52%) contained MMP-9 in its precursor form. Using ELISA, MMP-1 levels were found in 12% of the samples while MMP-3 levels were found in only 2% of the samples. Levels of MMP-2, -3 and -9 correlated inversely with numbers of nodal metastases. Neither MMP-2 nor -9 levels were significantly related to patient outcome. However, patients with high levels of a 50-kDa gelatinase band after zymography had a significantly better survival than patients with low levels. This species was never observed in normal breast tissue

Sart and individual trial mistake thresholds: Predictive model for mobility decline

The Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) has been used to measure neurocognitive functions in older adults. However, simplified average features of this complex dataset may result in loss of primary information and fail to express associations between test performance and clinically meaningful outcomes. Here, we describe a new method to visualise individual trial (raw) information obtained from the SART test, vis-a-vis age, and groups based on mobility status in a large population-based study of ageing in Ireland. A thresholding method, based on the individual trial number of mistakes, was employed to better visualise poorer SART performances, and was statistically validated with binary logistic regression models to predict mobility and cognitive decline after 4 years. Raw SART data were available for 4864 participants aged 50 years and over at baseline. The novel visualisation-derived feature bad performance, indicating the number of SART trials with at least 4 mistakes, was the most significant predictor of mobility decline expressed by the transition from Timed Up-and-Go (TUG) &lt; 12 to TUG &gt;= 12 s (OR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.14-1.46; p &lt; 0.001), and the only significant predictor of new falls (OR = 1.11; 95% CI 1.03-1.21; p = 0.011), in models adjusted for multiple covariates. However, no SART-related variables resulted significant for the risk of cognitive decline, expressed by a decrease of &gt;= 2 points in the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. This novel multimodal visualisation could help clinicians easily develop clinical hypotheses. A threshold approach to the evaluation of SART performance in older adults may better identify subjects at higher risk of future mobility decline

Playing With Time: Gay Intergenerational Performance Work and the Productive Possibilities of Queer Temporalities

This article examines the tendencies of LGBT intergenerational theater projects. By engaging with ideas of queer time, temporal drag, and the pervasive heteronormative imagery of heritability and inheritance, this article explores the possibility that LGBT intergenerational projects may generate some of the problems they aim to challenge. Through the lens of queer time, the article describes the normativity generated in LGBT intergenerational theater projects as a form of restrictive interpellation. The article explores the temporal complexities at play in such theater productions as The Front Room, a specific LGBT intergenerational theater project performed in the United Kingdom in 2011. The article concludes by noting some ways in which intergenerational theater projects might seek to work through the embodiment of the historical quotidian as a mode of resistance to normativity’s recirculation

Technology-Facilitated Intimate Partner Violence: A multidisciplinary examination of prevalence, methods used by perpetrators and the impact of COVID-19.

A multidisciplinary team of academics from the University of Kent’s Institute for Cyber Security in Society (iCSS) received funding from the Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrators Fund to conduct research into the perpetration of Technology Facilitated Intimate Partner Violence (TFIPV). The project comprised of 4 workstreams: 1) A Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) of the evidence base around TFIVP, 2) A thorough analysis of a representative sample of cases of TFIPV as reported to The Cyber Helpline, 3) interviews and surveys with Helpline Responders around their experiences responding to TFIPV and 4) a synthesis of the findings and a visual presentation