6,940 research outputs found
The FHD/ppsilon Epoch of Reionization Power Spectrum Pipeline
Epoch of Reionization data analysis requires unprecedented levels of accuracy
in radio interferometer pipelines. We have developed an imaging power spectrum
analysis to meet these requirements and generate robust 21 cm EoR measurements.
In this work, we build a signal path framework to mathematically describe each
step in the analysis, from data reduction in the FHD package to power spectrum
generation in the ppsilon package. In particular, we focus on the
distinguishing characteristics of FHD/ppsilon: highly accurate
spectral calibration, extensive data verification products, and end-to-end
error propagation. We present our key data analysis products in detail to
facilitate understanding of the prominent systematics in image-based power
spectrum analyses. As a verification to our analysis, we also highlight a
full-pipeline analysis simulation to demonstrate signal preservation and lack
of signal loss. This careful treatment ensures that the
FHD/ppsilon power spectrum pipeline can reduce radio
interferometric data to produce credible 21 cm EoR measurements.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures, accepted by PAS
Prediabetes and the risk of type 2 diabetes: investigating the roles of depressive and anxiety symptoms in the Lifelines Cohort Study
Background
Depression and anxiety may increase the risk of progressing from prediabetes to type 2 diabetes. The present study examined the interactions between prediabetes status and elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms with the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Methods
Participants (N=72,428) were adults aged 40âyears and above without diabetes at baseline from the Lifelines Cohort Study (58% female; mean age=51.4âyears). The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview screened for elevated symptoms of major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels determined prediabetes status at baseline (2007-2013), and HbA1c and self-reported diabetes diagnoses determined diabetes status at follow-up (2014-2017). Groups were formed for elevated depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively, and prediabetes status at baseline (elevated depressive/anxiety symptoms with prediabetes, elevated depressive/anxiety symptoms alone, and prediabetes alone), and compared to a reference group (no prediabetes or anxiety/depression) on the likelihood of developing diabetes during the follow-up period.
Findings
N=1,300 (1.8%) participants developed diabetes. While prediabetes alone was associated with incident diabetes (OR=5.94; 95% CI=5.10-6.90, p<.001), the group with combined prediabetes and depressive symptoms had the highest likelihood of developing diabetes over follow-up (OR=8.29; 95% CI=5.58-12.32, p<.001). Similar results were found for prediabetes and anxiety symptoms (OR=6.57; 95% CI=4.62-9.33, p<.001), compared to prediabetes alone (OR=6.09; 95% CI=5.23-7.11, p<.001), though with a smaller effect. The interaction between depressive symptoms and prediabetes was synergistic in age-and-sex adjusted analyses.
Conclusion
Individuals with elevated depressive, and to some extent anxiety, symptoms in combination with prediabetes may represent a high-risk subgroup for type 2 diabetes
STOPP/START criteria for potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people: version 2
Purpose: screening tool of older peopleâs prescriptions (STOPP) and screening tool to alert to right treatment (START) criteria were first published in 2008. Due to an expanding therapeutics evidence base, updating of the criteria was required. Methods: we reviewed the 2008 STOPP/START criteria to add new evidence-based criteria and remove any obsolete criteria. A thorough literature review was performed to reassess the evidence base of the 2008 criteria and the proposed new criteria. Nineteen experts from 13 European countries reviewed a new draft of STOPP & START criteria including proposed new criteria. These experts were also asked to propose additional criteria they considered important to include in the revised STOPP & START criteria and to highlight any criteria from the 2008 list they considered less important or lacking an evidence base. The revised list of criteria was then validated using the Delphi consensus methodology. Results: the expert panel agreed a final list of 114 criteria after two Delphi validation rounds, i.e. 80 STOPP criteria and 34 START criteria. This represents an overall 31% increase in STOPP/START criteria compared with version 1. Several new STOPP categories were created in version 2, namely antiplatelet/anticoagulant drugs, drugs affecting, or affected by, renal function and drugs that increase anticholinergic burden; new START categories include urogenital system drugs, analgesics and vaccines. Conclusion: STOPP/START version 2 criteria have been expanded and updated for the purpose of minimizing inappropriate prescribing in older people. These criteria are based on an up-to-date literature review and consensus validation among a European panel of experts
Monopile foundation stiffness estimation of an instrumented offshore wind turbine through model updating
Rapid development of offshore wind foundation models has resulted in a large number of built structures with generally underestimated foundation stiffness properties and a need to update and validate both the individual structural models and the underlying foundation design frameworks. This paper outlines a structural health monitoring approach, based on the combination of output only structural health monitoring methods and model updating, to estimate foundation stiffness parameters using field monitored data. Field monitoring data from an offshore wind turbine under idling conditions, over a large monitoring period, are presented and operational modal analysis is applied to estimate the modal parameters. Those are compared to modal properties predicted by finite element models, employing either old (API/DNVGL) or new (PISA) foundation design properties, which are calibrated using geotechnical site investigation data. A new approach to interpret seabed level statically equivalent foundation stiffness, in terms of effective lateral and rotational stiffness against load eccentricity, is presented. Seabed level statically equivalent foundation properties are updated by comparison against the observed modal behaviour and the optimised foundation parameters are presented, demonstrating a close match to the predictions of the PISA method
Bouncing Neutrons and the Neutron Centrifuge
The recent observation of the quantum state of the neutron bouncing freely
under gravity allows some novel experiments. A method of purifying the ground
state is given, and possible applications to the measurement of the electric
dipole moment of the neutron and the short distance behaviour of gravity are
discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure
"If We Want to Get Men in, Then We Need to Ask Men What They Want": Pathways to Effective Health Programing for Men.
In Ireland, menâs health is becoming a priority. In line with global trends, indicators of poor mental health (including rates of depression and suicide) are increasing alongside rates of unemployment and social isolation. Despite the growing awareness of menâs health as a national priority, and development of the first National Menâs Health Policy in the world, there is still a concern about menâs non-engagement with health services. Health and community services often struggle to appropriately accommodate men, and men commonly avoid health spaces. A growing body of literature suggests that a persistent lack of support or resources for service providers contributes to their inability to identify and meet menâs unique health needs. This study aims to provide further insight into the ways in which this gap between men and health services can be closed. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with nine project partners (n=9) of a successful menâs health program in Dublin. Interviews captured reflections on what processes or strategies contribute to effective menâs health programs. Findings suggest that gender-specific strategies â especially related to community- engagement and capacity building - are necessary in creating health programs that both promote menâs health and enable men to safely and comfortably participate. Moreover, including men in all aspects of the planning stages helps to ensure that programs are accessible and acceptable for men. It is envisaged that these findings will be operationalized into a user-driven resource to illustrate evidence-informed strategies and guiding principles that could be used by practitioners hoping to engage with me
âThey Called Them Communists ThenââŠâWhat D'You Call âEm Now?ââŠâInsurgents?â. Narratives of British Military Expatriates in the Context of the New Imperialism
This paper addresses the question of the extent to which the colonial past provides material for contemporary actors' understanding of difference. The research from which the paper is drawn involved interview and ethnographic work in three largely white working-class estates in an English provincial city. For this paper we focus on ten life-history interviews with older participants who had spent some time abroad in the British military. Our analysis adopts a postcolonial framework because research participants' current constructions of an amorphous 'Other' (labelled variously as black people, immigrants, foreigners, asylum-seekers or Muslims) reveal strong continuities with discourses deployed by the same individuals to narrate their past experiences of living and working as either military expatriates or spouses during British colonial rule. Theoretically, the paper engages with the work of Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. In keeping with a postcolonial approach, we work against essentialised notions of identity based on 'race' or class. Although we establish continuity between white working-class military emigration in the past and contemporary racialised discourses, we argue that the latter are not class-specific, being as much the creations of the middle-class media and political elite
An experiment for the measurement of the bound-beta decay of the free neutron
The hyperfine-state population of hydrogen after the bound-beta decay of the
neutron directly yields the neutrino left-handedness or a possible right-handed
admixture and possible small scalar and tensor contributions to the weak force.
Using the through-going beam tube of a high-flux reactor, a background free
hydrogen rate of ca. 3 s can be obtained. The detection of the neutral
hydrogen atoms and the analysis of the hyperfine states is accomplished by Lamb
shift source type quenching and subsequent ionization. The constraints on the
neutrino helicity and the scalar and tensor coupling constants of weak
interaction can be improved by a factor of ten.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to EPJ
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