A search for water maser emission toward obscured post-AGB star and planetary nebula candidates

Water maser emission at 22 GHz is a useful probe to study the transition between the nearly spherical mass-loss in the AGB to a collimated one in the post-AGB phase. In their turn, collimated jets in the post-AGB phase could determine the shape of planetary nebulae (PNe) once photoionization starts. We intend to find new cases of post-AGB stars and PNe with water maser emission, including water fountains or water-maser-emitting PNe. We observed water maser emission in a sample of 133 objects, with a significant fraction being post-AGB and young PN candidate sources with strong obscuration. We detected this emission in 15 of them, of which seven are reported here for the first time. We identified three water fountain candidates: IRAS 17291-2147, with a total velocity spread of ~96 km/s in its water maser components and two sources (IRAS 17021-3109 and IRAS 17348-2906) that show water maser emission outside the velocity range covered by OH masers. We have also identified IRAS 17393-2727 as a possible new water-maser-emitting PN. The detection rate is higher in obscured objects (14%) than in those with optical counterparts (7%), consistent with previous results. Water maser emission seems to be common in objects that are bipolar in the near-IR (43% detection rate). The water maser spectra of water fountain candidates like IRAS 17291-2147 show significantly less maser components than others (e.g., IRAS 18113-2503). We speculate that most post-AGBs may show water maser emission with wide enough velocity spread (> 100 km/s) when observed with enough sensitivity and/or for long enough periods of time. Therefore, it may be necessary to single out a special group of "water fountains", probably defined by their high maser luminosities. We also suggest that the presence of both water and OH masers in a PN is a better tracer of its youth, rather than the presence of just one of these species.Comment: To be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 16 pages, 1 figure (spanning 5 pages). This version includes some minor language corrections and fixes some errors in Table

Possible Patient Early Diagnosis by Ultrasonic Noninvasive Estimation of Thermal Gradients into Tissues Based on Spectral Changes Modeling

To achieve a precise noninvasive temperature estimation, inside patient tissues, would open promising research fields, because its clinic results would provide early-diagnosis tools. In fact, detecting changes of thermal origin in ultrasonic echo spectra could be useful as an early complementary indicator of infections, inflammations, or cancer. But the effective clinic applications to diagnosis of thermometry ultrasonic techniques, proposed previously, require additional research. Before their implementations with ultrasonic probes and real-time electronic and processing systems, rigorous analyses must be still made over transient echotraces acquired from well-controlled biological and computational phantoms, to improve resolutions and evaluate clinic limitations. It must be based on computing improved signal-processing algorithms emulating tissues responses. Some related parameters in echo-traces reflected by semiregular scattering tissues must be carefully quantified to get a precise processing protocols definition. In this paper, approaches for non-invasive spectral ultrasonic detection are analyzed. Extensions of author's innovations for ultrasonic thermometry are shown and applied to computationally modeled echotraces from scattered biological phantoms, attaining high resolution (better than 0.1°C). Computer methods are provided for viability evaluation of thermal estimation from echoes with distinct noise levels, difficult to be interpreted, and its effectiveness is evaluated as possible diagnosis tool in scattered tissues like liver

PANIC: the new panoramic NIR camera for Calar Alto

PANIC is a wide-field NIR camera, which is currently under development for the Calar Alto observatory (CAHA) in Spain. It uses a mosaic of four Hawaii-2RG detectors and covers the spectral range from 0.8-2.5 micron(z to K-band). The field-of-view is 30x30 arcmin. This instrument can be used at the 2.2m telescope (0.45arcsec/pixel, 0.5x0.5 degree FOV) and at the 3.5m telescope (0.23arcsec/pixel, 0.25x0.25 degree FOV). The operating temperature is about 77K, achieved by liquid Nitrogen cooling. The cryogenic optics has three flat folding mirrors with diameters up to 282 mm and nine lenses with diameters between 130 mm and 255 mm. A compact filter unit can carry up to 19 filters distributed over four filter wheels. Narrow band (1%) filters can be used. The instrument has a diameter of 1.1 m and it is about 1 m long. The weight limit of 400 kg at the 2.2m telescope requires a light-weight cryostat design. The aluminium vacuum vessel and radiation shield have wall thicknesses of only 6 mm and 3 mm respectively.Comment: This paper has been presented in the SPIE of Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008 in Marseille (France

Epi-and Mesopelagic Fishes, Acoustic Data, and SST Images Collected Off Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, During Cruise La Bocaina 04-97

During cruise La Bocaina 0497 a series of 14 tows with a commercial pelagic trawl at depths between 20 and 700 m and an acoustic survey with a SIMRAD EK-500 echosounder were carried out in neritic and adjacent oceanic waters off Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Gran Canaria, Canary islands. In addition, SST images were obtained to get some informations on the prevailing hydrological conditions in the study area. Of the 14 trawl tows ten were successful and resulted in capture of a total of 2166 fishes belonging to 81 species, 53 genera and 28 families. Ten species proved to be new records for the area of the Canary Islands. The acoustic survey covered a total of 2404 nm2 and allowed to obtain estimates of the abundance and biomass of fishes. Both the fishing results and the acoustic study revealed considerable spatial variability in biomass of chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus, an epipelagic species of particular fisheries interest, showing clear variations in the numerical dominance of certain age- or size classes among different collecting localities. Furthermore, some juveniles in the first year of life occurred in the oceanic epipelagic during night together with vertically migrating mesopelagic fishes. Preliminary analyses of the stomach and intestinal content suggest that these juveniles fed close to the bottom during the day before and hence may undertake diurnal horizontal migrations between the shelf and adjacent oceanic waters. It is concluded that the great spatial flexibility of this species requires further monitoring surveys at regular intervals as a basis for establishing a sustainable fisheries management. The acoustic data together with the trawling results demonstrate the existence of a dense deep scattering layer at depths between 400 and 700 m which is composed of mesopelagic fishes and invertebrates. Clear indications of diurnal vertical migrations were found in several species with formation of a shallow scattering layer in less than 150 m depth during night. Together with typical mesopelagic species such as stomiids and myctophids also juveniles of three benthopelagic species, which typically undergo a pelagic stage during early life, were collected. Several individuals of mesopelagic species were collected above the shelf what may reflect the ecological boundary situation at ocean rims typical for oceanic islands and seamounts. Some mesopelagic species collected in this study may be closely associated with distinct hydrological conditions such as the myctophid Ceratoscopelus maderensis which was discovered in the SE of Fuerteventura in an area of possible local upwelling. This finding points to the existence of micro-zoogeographic zones within the Canary islands which derserve further investigation using a small-scaled comparative approach

Discovery of novel per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) at a fire fighting training ground and preliminary investigation of their fate and mobility

Aqueous film forming foams (AFFFs) have been released at fire training facilities for several decades resulting in the contamination of soil and groundwater by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). AFFF compositions are proprietary and may contain a broad range of PFASs for which the chemical structures and degradation products are not known. In this study, high resolution quadrupole-time-of flight tandem mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS/MS) in combination with data processing using filtering strategies was applied to characterize and elucidate the PFASs present in concrete extracts collected at a fire training ground after the historical use of various AFFF formulations. Twelve different fluorochemical classes, representing more than 60 chemicals, were detected and identified in the concrete extracts. Novel PFASs homologues, unmonitored before in environmental samples such as chlorinated PFSAs, ketone PFSAs, dichlorinated PFSAs and perfluoroalkane sulphonamides (FASAs) were detected in soil samples collected in the vicinity of the fire training ground. Their detection in the soil cores (from 0 to 2 m) give an insight on the potential mobility of these newly identified PFASs. (c) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Safeguarding children in dentistry: 1. Child protection training, experience and practice of dental professionals with an interest in paediatric dentistry

* Few dental professionals with child protection training have experience of making referrals. * There is a wide gap in practice between recognising signs of child abuse and neglect and responding effectively. * This may indicate missed opportunities to save children from continuing abuse. * There is a need for improved child protection information, support and training for dental professionals. Abstract Following several highly publicised inquiries into the deaths of children from abuse and neglect, there has been much recent interest in the role and responsibility of all health professionals to protect children at risk of maltreatment. The findings of a postal questionnaire, sent in March 2005 to 789 dentists and dental care professionals with an interest in paediatric dentistry working in varied settings in the UK, are presented in a two-part report and discussed in the context of current multi-agency good practice in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. This first part explores reported child protection training, experience and practice. There was a significant gap between recognising signs of abuse and responding effectively: 67% of respondents had suspected abuse or neglect of a child patient at some time in their career but only 29% had ever made a child protection referral. The dental profession is alerted to the need to ensure necessary appropriate action to safeguard children is always taken when child abuse or neglect are suspected

Rapid screening and identification of chemical hazards in surface and drinking water using high resolution mass spectrometry and a case-control filter

Access to clean, safe drinking water poses a serious challenge to regulators, and requires analytical strategies capable of rapid screening and identification of potentially hazardous chemicals, specifically in situations when threats to water quality or security require rapid investigations and potential response. This study describes a fast and efficient chemical hazard screening strategy for characterising trace levels of polar organic contaminants in water matrices, based on liquid chromatography high resolution mass spectrometry with post-acquisition 'case-control' data processing. This method allowed for a rapid response time of less than 24 h for the screening of target, suspect and non-target unknown chemicals via direct injection analysis, and a second, more sensitive analysis option requiring sample pre-concentration. The method was validated by fortifying samples with a range of pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products (n = 46); with >90% of target compounds positively screened in samples at 1 ng mL(-1), and 46% at 0.1 ng mL(-1) when analysed via direct injection. To simulate a contamination event samples were fortified with compounds not present in the commercial library (designated 'non-target compounds'; fipronil and fenitrothion), tentatively identified at 0.2 and 1 ng mL(-1), respectively; and a compound not included in any known commercial library or public database (designated 'unknown' compounds; 8C1(-) perfluorooctanesulfonic acid), at 0.8 ng mL(-1). The method was applied to two 'real-case' scenarios: (1) the assessment of drinking water safety during a high-profile event in Brisbane, Australia; and (2) to screen treated, re-circulated drinking water and pre-treated (raw) water. The validated workflow was effective for rapid prioritisation and screening of suspect and non-target potential hazards at trace levels, and could be applied to a wide range of matrices and investigations where comparison of organic contaminants between an affected and control site and or timeframe is warranted. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved