193 research outputs found
Revisiting the Chlorine Abundance in Diffuse Interstellar Clouds from Measurements with the Copernicus Satellite
We reanalyzed interstellar Cl I and Cl II spectra acquired with the
Copernicus satellite. The directions for this study come from those of Crenny &
Federman and sample the transition from atomic to molecular rich clouds where
the unique chemistry leading to molecules containing chlorine is initiated. Our
profile syntheses relied on up-to-date laboratory oscillator strengths and
component structures derived from published high-resolution measurements of K I
absorption that were supplemented with Ca II and Na I D results. We obtain
self-consistent results for the Cl I lines at 1088, 1097, and 1347 A from which
precise column densities are derived. The improved set of results reveals
clearer correspondences with H2 and total hydrogen column densities. These
linear relationships arise from rapid conversion of Cl^+ to Cl^0 in regions
where H2 is present.Comment: 17 pp, 2 tables, and 3 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical
Journa
Prevention of toxoplasmosis in pregnancy: knowledge of risk factors.
BACKGROUND: Infection with Toxoplasma gondii is common and usually asymptomatic, although it can have catastrophic consequences in a pregnant woman if passed to her developing fetus. Counseling of pregnant women about risk factor reduction may reduce the risk of congenital toxoplasmosis. This study was undertaken to assess and compare the knowledge of obstetricians and internists or family practitioners regarding well-established risk factors for toxoplasmosis infection. METHODS: The study surveyed 102 obstetricians, internists and family practitioners to assess their knowledge of risk factors for toxoplasmosis infection as well as their practices for primary prevention counseling of pregnant women. Responses were analyzed for differences. RESULTS: Obstetricians were more likely than internists or family practitioners to provide appropriate counseling on reducing the two most common risk factors for toxoplasmosis infection (undercooked meat consumption and gardening without gloves). However, over one quarter of all participants inappropriately advised pregnant women to avoid all cat contact. Obstetricians, internists and family practitioners were all likely to fail to identify undercooked meat consumption as the primary risk factor for toxoplasmosis transmission. CONCLUSIONS: Obstetricians appear to provide more appropriate counseling for primary prevention of toxoplasmosis than internists and family practitioners, but both groups of physicians inappropriately advised avoidance of all cat contact. Education of obstetricians, internists and family practitioners on risk factors for toxoplasmosis transmission is needed and may lower the rate of congenital toxoplasmosis as well as decrease the frequency of cat abandonment during pregnancy
Deconstructing the Psychopath: A Critical Discursive Analysis
She loved accidents: any mention of an animal run over, a man cut to pieces by a train, was bound to make her rush to the spot. The spectacle of the wounded body has always had its lurid attractions. Coverage of serial killings and graphic accounts of brutal murders by various media is part of our “spectacular” culture fascinated by violence and brutality. The television is often the site where private desire and public fantasy meet, and where the fascination regarding dangerous offenders is initiated and nurtured (Knox, 17–18; Lesser). The convening of the public around scenes of violence represents what Mark Seltzer terms the “wound culture,” a lethal space in which the public interest in scars and mutilated and opened bodies constitutes a collective fascination with the unbearable aspects of human life. Although television news coverage reports violence and atrocities of all kinds, movies are the main medium through which dangerous individuals are presented to the public. The serial killer and psychopathic representations of unexplained violence can be found in such films as Friday the 13th, Halloween, Cape Fear, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Sharrett; Schmid). The emphasis on the hidden danger of the psychopath has replaced the Western, with its more clear-cut images of the dangerous individual, as the most popular genre of film related to the body and to representations of bodily violence in our culture (Corkin). In effect, current horror movies, and their associated prequels and sequels, use an efficient mixture of gore and frightening scenes of psychopaths preying on the innocent that help fosters the socially constructed subjectivity of the dangerous individual (Schneider; Hare 1993, 25, 35–36, 85, 140, 178). In response to (and also in reaction against) the pervasive discourse of the monstrous and of human monsters as caricatures of madness and danger, the objective of this paper is twofold: first, to conduct a critical, Foucauldian analysis of the psychopath, based on a discursive analysis of psychiatric descriptions of psychopathy, and second, to deconstruct the mythic figure of the psychopath and therefore to shed light on the relationship between psychiatric power and the construction of so-called monsters and psychopaths. Our argument is that the construction of the psychopath, a historically ill-defined concept (Gough; Sutherland 1950b; Cleckley; Hare 1993), as the main figure of modern monstrosity, involves the elaboration of a technical-knowledge system that is capable of characterizing anyone who deviates from the norm as dangerous to persons and to society (Movahedi; Sutherland 1950a; Hare 1993, chapter 7). To be sure, scientific research has been carried out on the dangerous individual in captivity (Verschuere, Crombez, De Clercq, and Koster; Glueck, 66–70; Hare 1993), thereby linking psychopathy with biological dangerousness. But few have looked at psychopathy from a critical and discursive standpoint. That is, in this essay we examine the way in which the creation of monsters in an earlier age gave way to the scientific inquiry into the character of the dangerous individual in the modern age, creating what Michel Foucault has called a “system of thought” (Foucault 1994, 5–10). Most studies of psychopathy have viewed it as a medical problem (Harris, Skilling, and Rice; Black; Siever; Reid; Skodol), a philosophical problem of evil and responsibility (Benn; Ciocchetti; Stein), or as an individual problem, in some cases, with societal ramifications (Hare 1993; Black; Stout; Samenow). But the medical, philosophic, individual, and social studies of psychopathy have all refrained from characterizing psychopathy as part of a cultural matrix that heightens the public’s sense of the fear of criminality, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the unfamiliar, and the fear of cultural pollution (Hare 1993; Stout; Magid and McKelvey; Black; Harris, Skilling, and Rice, 200–201). Indeed, the study of psychopathy as a clinical reality remains reliant on two strands of thought that explicitly reject cultural, historical, philosophic, and linguistic analyses: (1) a belief that criminals choose to commit crimes, despite economic, personal, and psychological factors that may or may not influence their choices; and (2) a belief in scientific progress that relies on continuous conceptual changes regarding what constitutes behavioral abnormalities and..
New Discoveries in Planetary Systems and Star Formation through Advances in Laboratory Astrophysics
As the panel on Planetary Systems and Star Formation (PSF) is fully aware,
the next decade will see major advances in our understanding of these areas of
research. To quote from their charge, these advances will occur in studies of
solar system bodies (other than the Sun) and extrasolar planets, debris disks,
exobiology, the formation of individual stars, protostellar and protoplanetary
disks, molecular clouds and the cold ISM, dust, and astrochemistry. Central to
the progress in these areas are the corresponding advances in laboratory astro-
physics which are required for fully realizing the PSF scientific opportunities
in the decade 2010-2020. Laboratory astrophysics comprises both theoretical and
experimental studies of the underlying physics and chemistry which produce the
observed spectra and describe the astrophysical processes. We discuss four
areas of laboratory astrophysics relevant to the PSF panel: atomic, molecular,
solid matter, and plasma physics. Section 2 describes some of the new
opportunities and compelling themes which will be enabled by advances in
laboratory astrophysics. Section 3 provides the scientific context for these
opportunities. Section 4 discusses some experimental and theoretical advances
in laboratory astrophysics required to realize the PSF scientific opportunities
of the next decade. As requested in the Call for White Papers, we present in
Section 5 four central questions and one area with unusual discovery potential.
We give a short postlude in Section 6.Comment: White paper submitted by the AAS Working Group on Laboratory
Astrophysics (WGLA) to the PSF SFP of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal
Survey (Astro2010
Laboratory Astrophysics and the State of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Laboratory astrophysics and complementary theoretical calculations are the
foundations of astronomy and astrophysics and will remain so into the
foreseeable future. The impact of laboratory astrophysics ranges from the
scientific conception stage for ground-based, airborne, and space-based
observatories, all the way through to the scientific return of these projects
and missions. It is our understanding of the under-lying physical processes and
the measurements of critical physical parameters that allows us to address
fundamental questions in astronomy and astrophysics. In this regard, laboratory
astrophysics is much like detector and instrument development at NASA, NSF, and
DOE. These efforts are necessary for the success of astronomical research being
funded by the agencies. Without concomitant efforts in all three directions
(observational facilities, detector/instrument development, and laboratory
astrophysics) the future progress of astronomy and astrophysics is imperiled.
In addition, new developments in experimental technologies have allowed
laboratory studies to take on a new role as some questions which previously
could only be studied theoretically can now be addressed directly in the lab.
With this in mind we, the members of the AAS Working Group on Laboratory
Astrophysics, have prepared this State of the Profession Position Paper on the
laboratory astrophysics infrastructure needed to ensure the advancement of
astronomy and astrophysics in the next decade.Comment: Position paper submitted by the AAS Working Group on Laboratory
Astrophysics (WGLA) to the State of the Profession (Facilities, Funding and
Programs Study Group) of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey
(Astro2010
Recommended from our members
Laboratory Astrophysics White Paper
Laboratory astrophysics and complementary theoretical calculations are the foundations of astronomical and planetary research and will remain so for many generations to come. From the level of scientific conception to that of the scientific return, it is our understanding of the underlying processes that allows us to address fundamental questions regarding the origins and evolution of galaxies, stars, planetary systems, and life in the cosmos. In this regard, laboratory astrophysics is much like detector and instrument development at NASA and NSF. These efforts are necessary for the astronomical research being funded by the agencies
Laboratory Astrophysics White Paper (based on the 2010 NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop in Gatlinberg, Tennessee, 25-28 October 2010)
The purpose of the 2010 NASA Laboratory Astrophysics Workshop (LAW) was, as given in the Charter from NASA, "to provide a forum within which the scientific community can review the current state of knowledge in the field of Laboratory Astrophysics, assess the critical data needs of NASA's current and future Space Astrophysics missions, and identify the challenges and opportunities facing the field as we begin a new decade". LAW 2010 was the fourth in a roughly quadrennial series of such workshops sponsored by the Astrophysics Division of the NASA Science Mission Directorate. In this White Paper, we report the findings of the workshop
New Discoveries in Stars and Stellar Evolution through Advances in Laboratory Astrophysics
As the Stars and Stellar Evolution (SSE) panel is fully aware, the next
decade will see major advances in our understanding of these areas of research.
To quote from their charge, these advances will occur in studies of the Sun as
a star, stellar astrophysics, the structure and evolution of single and
multiple stars, compact objects, SNe, gamma-ray bursts, solar neutrinos, and
extreme physics on stellar scales. Central to the progress in these areas are
the corresponding advances in laboratory astrophysics, required to fully
realize the SSE scientific opportunities within the decade 2010-2020.
Laboratory astrophysics comprises both theoretical and experimental studies of
the underlying physics that produces the observed astrophysical processes. The
6 areas of laboratory astrophysics, which we have identified as relevant to the
CFP panel, are atomic, molecular, solid matter, plasma, nuclear physics, and
particle physics. In this white paper, we describe in Section 2 the scientific
context and some of the new scientific opportunities and compelling scientific
themes which will be enabled by advances in laboratory astrophysics. In Section
3, we discuss some of the experimental and theoretical advances in laboratory
astrophysics required to realize the SSE scientific opportunities of the next
decade. As requested in the Call for White Papers, Section 4 presents four
central questions and one area with unusual discovery potential. Lastly, we
give a short postlude in Section 5.Comment: White paper submitted by the AAS Working Group on Laboratory
Astrophysics (WGLA) to the SSE SFP of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal
Survey (Astro2010
New Discoveries in the Galactic Neighborhood through Advances in Laboratory Astrophysics
As the Galactic Neighborhood (GAN) panel is fully aware, the next decade will
see major advances in our understanding of this area of research. To quote from
their charge, these advances will occur in studies of the galactic
neighborhood, including the structure and properties of the Milky Way and
nearby galaxies, and their stellar populations and evolution, as well as
interstellar media and star clusters. Central to the progress in these areas
are the corresponding advances in laboratory astrophysics that are required for
fully realizing the GAN scientific opportunities within the decade 2010-2020.
Laboratory astrophysics comprises both theoretical and experimental studies of
the underlying physics and chemistry that produces the observed astrophysical
processes. The 5 areas of laboratory astrophysics that we have identified as
relevant to the GAN panel are atomic, molecular, solid matter, plasma, and
nuclear physics. In this white paper, we describe in Section 2 some of the new
scientific opportunities and compelling scientific themes that will be enabled
by advances in laboratory astrophysics. In Section 3, we provide the scientific
context for these opportunities. Section 4 briefly discusses some of the
experimental and theoretical advances in laboratory astrophysics required to
realize the GAN scientific opportunities of the next decade. As requested in
the Call for White Papers, Section 5 presents four central questions and one
area with unusual discovery potential. Lastly, we give a short postlude in
Section 6.Comment: White paper submitted by the AAS Working Group on Laboratory
Astrophysics (WGLA) to the GAN SFP of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal
Survey (Astro2010
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