What triggers a radio AGN? The intriguing case of PKSB 1718-649

We present new Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) observations of the young (< 10^2 years) radio galaxy PKS B1718-649. We study the morphology and the kinematics of the neutral hydrogen (HI) disk (M(HI) = 1.1x 10^10 M(sun), radius ~ 30 kpc). In particular, we focus on the analysis of the cold gas in relation to the triggering of the nuclear activity. The asymmetries at the edges of the disk date the last interaction with a companion to more than 1 Gyr ago. The tilted-ring model of the HI disk shows that this event may have formed the disk as we see it now, but that it may have not been responsible for triggering the AGN. The long timescales of the interaction are incompatible with the short ones of the radio activity. In absorption, we identify two clouds with radial motions which may represent a population that could be involved in the triggering of the radio activity. We argue that PKS B1718-649 may belong to a family of young low-excitation radio AGN where, rather than through a gas rich merger, the active nuclei (AGN) are triggered by local mechanisms such as accretion of small gas clouds.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, Accepted to A&

'Reunion of broken parts' (Arabic a/-jabr): A therapist's personal art practice and its relationship to an NHS outpatient art psychotherapy group: an exploration through visual arts and crafts practice

'Reunion of broken parts' explores the relationship between the therapist's personal art practice and the creative art experience of an art psychotherapy group for people with severe and complex mental health difficulties. These practices are usually kept apart. A process of artmaking is examined, including my own as therapist in and outside the studio-based group. The political implications of styles of research writing are discussed. The significance of the investigation is in using art practice as a visual heuristic methodology to explore the junction between visual arts, art psychotherapy and studio practice. Exhibition practices of curating displays of archival material and exhibition visits to examine relevant artists' work were combined with illustrated, autobiographical narratives constructed for analysis. A visually-based case study examines photographs of the group's art. Exploring my own living archive, collected over 20 years, links my art history to the present. The research shows how deep, complex and reciprocal exchanges were facilitated by the therapist's artmaking, even when unseen by the group, implying that the therapist's personal art practice is integral to clinical practice both in and outside clinical groups, and requires far greater consideration. Communication through unspoken metaphor is emphasised, especially in the containment and role modelling of the creative process by the therapist. It is suggested that the therapist's carefully considered artmaking in art psychotherapy groups can significantly enhance the clients' experiences. A non-verbal discourse appeared to take place giving visual form to the group matrix as described in group analysis, and refashioning personal histories in sustained, labour-intensive processes without necessarily being understood. An examination of craft practices is distinctive, showing they can materialise the culture and autobiography of individuals and a group, embodying complex ideas and offering visual interpretations. Genres of art are shown to offer a route for accessing issues of power and cultural meaning

Mapping the neutral atomic hydrogen gas outflow in the restarted radio galaxy 3C 236

The energetic feedback that is generated by radio jets in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) has been suggested to be able to produce fast outflows of atomic hydrogen (HI) gas that can be studied in absorption at high spatial resolution. We have used the Very Large Array (VLA) and a global very-long-baseline-interferometry (VLBI) array to locate and study in detail the HI outflow discovered with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) in the re-started radio galaxy 3C 236. We confirm, from the VLA data, the presence of a blue-shifted wing of the HI with a width of $\sim1000\mathrm{\,km\,s^{-1}}$. This HI outflow is partially recovered by the VLBI observation. In particular, we detect four clouds with masses of $0.28\text{-}1.5\times 10^4M_\odot$ with VLBI that do not follow the regular rotation of most of the HI. Three of these clouds are located, in projection, against the nuclear region on scales of $\lesssim 40\mathrm{\,pc}$, while the fourth is co-spatial to the south-east lobe at a projected distance of $\sim270\mathrm{\,pc}$. Their velocities are between $150$ and $640\mathrm{\,km\,s^{-1}}$ blue-shifted with respect to the velocity of the disk-related HI. These findings suggest that the outflow is at least partly formed by clouds, as predicted by some numerical simulations and originates already in the inner (few tens of pc) region of the radio galaxy. Our results indicate that all of the outflow could consist of many clouds with perhaps comparable properties as the ones detected, distributed also at larger radii from the nucleus where the lower brightness of the lobe does not allow us to detect them. However, we cannot rule out the presence of a diffuse component of the outflow. The fact that 3C 236 is a low excitation radio galaxy, makes it less likely that the optical AGN is able to produce strong radiative winds leaving the radio jet as the main driver for the HI outflow.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

DNA Familial Binding Profiles Made Easy: Comparison of Various Motif Alignment and Clustering Strategies

Transcription factor (TF) proteins recognize a small number of DNA sequences with high specificity and control the expression of neighbouring genes. The evolution of TF binding preference has been the subject of a number of recent studies, in which generalized binding profiles have been introduced and used to improve the prediction of new target sites. Generalized profiles are generated by aligning and merging the individual profiles of related TFs. However, the distance metrics and alignment algorithms used to compare the binding profiles have not yet been fully explored or optimized. As a result, binding profiles depend on TF structural information and sometimes may ignore important distinctions between subfamilies. Prediction of the identity or the structural class of a protein that binds to a given DNA pattern will enhance the analysis of microarray and ChIP–chip data where frequently multiple putative targets of usually unknown TFs are predicted. Various comparison metrics and alignment algorithms are evaluated (a total of 105 combinations). We find that local alignments are generally better than global alignments at detecting eukaryotic DNA motif similarities, especially when combined with the sum of squared distances or Pearson's correlation coefficient comparison metrics. In addition, multiple-alignment strategies for binding profiles and tree-building methods are tested for their efficiency in constructing generalized binding models. A new method for automatic determination of the optimal number of clusters is developed and applied in the construction of a new set of familial binding profiles which improves upon TF classification accuracy. A software tool, STAMP, is developed to host all tested methods and make them publicly available. This work provides a high quality reference set of familial binding profiles and the first comprehensive platform for analysis of DNA profiles. Detecting similarities between DNA motifs is a key step in the comparative study of transcriptional regulation, and the work presented here will form the basis for tool and method development for future transcriptional modeling studies

A search for 21 cm HI absorption in AT20G compact radio galaxies

We present results from a search for 21 cm associated HI absorption in a sample of 29 radio sources selected from the Australia Telescope 20 GHz survey. Observations were conducted using the Australia Telescope Compact Array Broadband Backend, with which we can simultaneously look for 21 cm absorption in a redshift range of 0.04 < z < 0.08, with a velocity resolution of 7 km/s . In preparation for future large-scale H I absorption surveys we test a spectral-line finding method based on Bayesian inference. We use this to assign significance to our detections and to determine the best-fitting number of spectral-line components. We find that the automated spectral-line search is limited by residuals in the continuum, both from the band-pass calibration and spectral-ripple subtraction, at spectral-line widths of \Deltav_FWHM > 103 km/s . Using this technique we detect two new absorbers and a third, previously known, yielding a 10 per cent detection rate. Of the detections, the spectral-line profiles are consistent with the theory that we are seeing different orientations of the absorbing gas, in both the host galaxy and circumnuclear disc, with respect to our line-of-sight to the source. In order to spatially resolve the spectral-line components in the two new detections, and so verify this conclusion, we require further high-resolution 21 cm observations (~0.01 arcsec) using very long baseline interferometry.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures and 5 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS (version 2 based on proof corrections

Understanding the full burden of drowning: a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of fatal and non-fatal drowning in Australia

Objectives: The epidemiology of fatal drowning is increasingly understood. By contrast, there is relatively little population-level research on non-fatal drowning. This study compares data on fatal and non-fatal drowning in Australia, identifying differences in outcomes to guide identification of the best practice in minimising the lethality of exposure to drowning. Design: A subset of data on fatal unintentional drowning from the Royal Life Saving National Fatal Drowning Database was compared on a like-for-like basis to data on hospital separations sourced from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's National Hospital Morbidity Database for the 13-year period 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2015. A restrictive definition was applied to the fatal drowning data to estimate the effect of the more narrow inclusion criteria for the non-fatal data (International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes W65-74 and first reported cause only). Incidence and ratios of fatal to non-fatal drowning with univariate and X 2 analysis are reported and used to calculate case-fatality rates. ' Setting: Australia, 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2015. Participants: Unintentional fatal drowning cases and cases of non-fatal drowning resulting in hospital separation. Results: 2272 fatalities and 6158 hospital separations occurred during the study period, a ratio of 1:2.71. Children 0-4 years (1:7.63) and swimming pools (1:4.35) recorded high fatal to non-fatal ratios, whereas drownings among people aged 65-74 years (1:0.92), 75+ years (1:0.87) and incidents in natural waterways (1:0.94) were more likely to be fatal. Conclusions: This study highlights the extent of the drowning burden when non-fatal incidents are considered, although coding limitations remain. Documenting the full burden of drowning is vital to ensuring that the issue is fully understood and its prevention adequately resourced. Further research examining the severity of non-fatal drowning cases requiring hospitalisation and tracking outcomes of those discharged will provide a more complete picture

From ivory tower to inclusion: Stakeholders’ experiences of community engagement in Australian autism research

Autistic people, and other community stakeholders, are gaining increasing recognition as valuable contributors to autism research, resulting in a growing corpus of participatory autism research. Yet, we know little about the ways in which stakeholders practice and experience community engagement in autism research. In this study, we interviewed 20 stakeholders (academics, autistic people, family members/careers, research students, and service providers) regarding their experiences of community engagement in Australian autism research. Through reflexive thematic analysis of interview data, we generated four themes. First, our participants perceived academia as an “ivory tower,” disconnected from community members’ lives and priorities. Second, our participants identified that different stakeholders tended to hold different roles within their research projects: academics typically retained power and control, while community members’ roles tended toward tokenism. Third, our participants spoke of the need to “bridge the gap” between academia and the community, highlighting communication, accessibility, and planning as key to conducting effective participatory research. Lastly, participants emphasized the changing nature of autism research, describing participatory research as “the way of the future.” Our findings reflect both the progress achieved to date, and the challenges that lie ahead, as the field advances toward genuine co-production of autism research

Exhibition Review: Disobedient Objects, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 26 July 2014 – 1 February 2015

- ELECTRONIC SUPERHIGHWAY 2016–1966, THE WHITECHAPEL GALLERY, LONDON, 29 JANUARY–15 MAY 2016 - KERRY GUINAN, LIBERATE ART POLITICAL PROGRAMME AND PRESS RELEASE EVENT, TEMPLE BAR GALLERY AND STUDIOS, DUBLIN, 15 FEBRUARY 2016 - TOMORROW WAS A MONTAGE, COOPER GALLERY, DUNCAN OF JORDANSTONE COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN, 30 OCTOBER– 18 DECEMBER 2015 - DISOBEDIENT OBJECTS, VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON, 26 JULY 2014–1 FEBRUARY 201

Deep 20-GHz survey of the Chandra Deep Field South and SDSS Stripe 82: source catalogue and spectral properties

We present a source catalogue and first results from a deep, blind radio survey carried out at 20 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, with follow-up observations at 5.5, 9 and 18 GHz. The Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) deep pilot survey covers a total area of 5 deg2 in the Chandra Deep Field South and in Stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We estimate the survey to be 90 per cent complete above 2.5 mJy. Of the 85 sources detected, 55 per cent have steep spectra [graphic] and 45 per cent have flat or inverted spectra [graphic]. The steep-spectrum sources tend to have single power-law spectra between 1.4 and 18 GHz, while the spectral indices of the flat- or inverted-spectrum sources tend to steepen with frequency. Among the 18 inverted-spectrum [graphic] sources, 10 have clearly defined peaks in their spectra with [graphic] and [graphic]. On a 3-yr time-scale, at least 10 sources varied by more than 15 per cent at 20 GHz, showing that variability is still common at the low flux densities probed by the AT20G-deep pilot survey. We find a strong and puzzling shift in the typical spectral index of the 15–20-GHz source population when combining data from the AT20G, Ninth Cambridge and Tenth Cambridge surveys: there is a shift towards a steeper-spectrum population when going from ~1 Jy to ~5 mJy, which is followed by a shift back towards a flatter-spectrum population below ~5 mJy. The 5-GHz source-count model by Jackson & Wall, which only includes contributions from FRI and FRII sources, and star-forming galaxies, does not reproduce the observed flattening of the flat-spectrum counts below ~5 mJy. It is therefore possible that another population of sources is contributing to this effect