Mortality from all cancers and lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer by country of birth in England and Wales, 2001–2003

Mortality from all cancers combined and major cancers among men and women aged 20 years and over was compared by country of birth with that of the whole of England and Wales as the reference group. Population data from the 2001 Census and mortality data for 2001–2003 were used to estimate standardised mortality ratios. Data on approximately 399 000 cancer deaths were available, with at least 400 cancer deaths in each of the smaller populations. Statistically significant differences from the reference group included: higher mortality from all cancers combined, lung and colorectal cancer among people born in Scotland and Ireland, lower mortality for all cancers combined, lung, breast and prostate cancer among people born in Bangladesh (except for lung cancer in men), India, Pakistan or China/Hong Kong, lower lung cancer mortality among people born in West Africa or the West Indies, higher breast cancer mortality among women born in West Africa and higher prostate cancer mortality among men born in West Africa or the West Indies. These data may be relevant to causal hypotheses and in relation to health care and cancer prevention

Major Role of Microbes in Carbon Fluxes during Austral Winter in the Southern Drake Passage

Carbon cycling in Southern Ocean is a major issue in climate change, hence the need to understand the role of biota in the regulation of carbon fixation and cycling. Southern Ocean is a heterogeneous system, characterized by a strong seasonality, due to long dark winter. Yet, currently little is known about biogeochemical dynamics during this season, particularly in the deeper part of the ocean. We studied bacterial communities and processes in summer and winter cruises in the southern Drake Passage. Here we show that in winter, when the primary production is greatly reduced, Bacteria and Archaea become the major producers of biogenic particles, at the expense of dissolved organic carbon drawdown. Heterotrophic production and chemoautotrophic CO2 fixation rates were substantial, also in deep water, and bacterial populations were controlled by protists and viruses. A dynamic food web is also consistent with the observed temporal and spatial variations in archaeal and bacterial communities that might exploit various niches. Thus, Southern Ocean microbial loop may substantially maintain a wintertime food web and system respiration at the expense of summer produced DOC as well as regenerate nutrients and iron. Our findings have important implications for Southern Ocean ecosystem functioning and carbon cycle and its manipulation by iron enrichment to achieve net sequestration of atmospheric CO2

Change in structure between the I = 1/2 states in 181Tl and 177,179Au

The first accurate measurements of the α-decay branching ratio and half-life of the Iπ=1/2+ ground state in 181Tl have been made, along with the first determination of the magnetic moments and I=1/2 spin assignments of the ground states in 177,179Au. The results are discussed within the complementary systematics of the reduced α-decay widths and nuclear g factors of low-lying, Iπ=1/2+ states in the neutron-deficient lead region. The findings shed light on the unexpected hindrance of the 1/2+→1/2+, 181Tl→g177Aug α decay, which is explained by a mixing of π3s1/2 and π2d3/2 configurations in 177Aug, whilst 181Tlg remains a near-pure π3s1/2. This conclusion is inferred from the g factor of 177Aug which has an intermediate value between those of π3s1/2 and π2d3/2 states. A similar mixed configuration is proposed for the Iπ=1/2+ ground state of 179Au. This mixing may provide evidence for triaxial shapes in the ground states in these nuclei

Optimising the Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at CERN-ISOLDE

© 2019 The CRIS experiment at CERN-ISOLDE is a dedicated laser spectroscopy setup for high-resolution hyperfine structure measurements of nuclear observables of exotic isotopes. Between 2015 and 2018 developments have been made to improve the background suppression, laser-atom overlap and automation of the beamline. Furthermore, a new ion source setup has been developed for offline studies. Here we present the latest technical developments and future perspectives for the experiment.status: publishe

Analytic response relativistic coupled-cluster theory: the first application to indium isotope shifts

status: publishe

Analytic response relativistic coupled-cluster theory: the first application to indium isotope shifts

© 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. With increasing demand for accurate calculation of isotope shifts of atomic systems for fundamental and nuclear structure research, an analytic energy derivative approach is presented in the relativistic coupled-cluster (CC) theory framework to determine the atomic field shift and mass shift (MS) factors. This approach allows the determination of expectation values of atomic operators, overcoming fundamental problems that are present in existing atomic physics methods, i.e. it satisfies the Hellmann-Feynman theorem, does not involve any non-terminating series, and is free from choice of any perturbative parameter. As a proof of concept, the developed analytic response relativistic CC theory has been applied to determine MS and field shift factors for different atomic states of indium. High-precision isotope-shift measurements of 104-127 In were performed in the 246.8 nm (5p 2P3/2 → 9s 2S1/2) and 246.0 nm (5p 2P1/2 → 8s 2S1/2) transitions to test our theoretical results. An excellent agreement between the theoretical and measured values is found, which is known to be challenging in multi-electron atoms. The calculated atomic factors allowed an accurate determination of the nuclear charge radii of the ground and isomeric states of the 104-127 In isotopes, providing an isotone-independent comparison of the absolute charge radii

Resonance ionization schemes for high resolution and high efficiency studies of exotic nuclei at the CRIS experiment

© 2019 This paper presents an overview of recent resonance ionization schemes used at the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) setup located at ISOLDE, CERN. The developments needed to reach high spectral resolution and efficiency will be discussed. Besides laser ionization efficiency and high resolving power, experiments on rare isotopes also require low-background conditions. Ongoing developments that aim to deal with beam-related sources of background are presented.status: publishe

High-resolution laser spectroscopy with the Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at CERN-ISOLDE

The Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at CERN has achieved high-resolution resonance ionisation laser spectroscopy with a full width at half maximum linewidth of 20(1) MHz for 219;221Fr, and has measured isotopes as short lived as 5 ms with 214Fr. This development allows for greater precision in the study of hyperfine structures and isotope shifts, as well as a higher selectivity of singleisotope, even single-isomer, beams. These achievements are linked with the development of a new laser laboratory and new data-acquisition systems.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: High-resolution laser spectroscopy with the Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at CERN-ISOLDE journaltitle: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2015.11.024 content_type: article copyright: © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.status: publishe

A compact RFQ cooler buncher for CRIS experiments

© 2019, The Author(s). A compact radio frequency cooler buncher (RFQCB) is currently in development between The University of Manchester, KU Leuven, and CERN. The device will be installed as part of the Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at the Isotope separator On-line device (ISOLDE) at CERN. The purpose of developing a dedicated RFQCB for the CRIS experiment is to increase data collection efficiency, and simplify the process of obtaining reference measurements with stable isotopes. The CRIS technique is outlined in addition to an overview of the proposed RFQCB, and its potential compatibility for implementation at ISOLDE.status: Published onlin

Large Shape Staggering in Neutron-Deficient Bi Isotopes

The changes in the mean-square charge radius (relative to Bi-209), magnetic dipole, and electric quadrupole moments of Bi-187,Bi-188,Bi-189,Bi-191 were measured using the in-source resonance-ionization spectroscopy technique at ISOLDE (CERN). A large staggering in radii was found in Bi-187,188,189(g), manifested by a sharp radius increase for the ground state of Bi-188 relative to the neighboring Bi-187,189(g). A large isomer shift was also observed for Bi-188(m). Both effects happen at the same neutron number, N = 10(5), where the shape staggering and a similar isomer shift were observed in the mercury isotopes. Experimental results are reproduced by mean-field calculations where the ground or isomeric states were identified by the blocked quasiparticle configuration compatible with the observed spin, parity, and magnetic moment.Peer reviewe