Energies of B_s meson excited states - a lattice study

This is a follow-up to our earlier work on the energies and radial distributions of heavy-light mesons. The heavy quark is taken to be static (infinitely heavy) and the light quark has a mass about that of the strange quark. We now concentrate on the energies of the excited states with higher angular momentum and with a radial node. A new improvement is the use of hypercubic blocking in the time direction. The calculation is carried out with dynamical fermions on a 16 cubed times 32 lattice with a lattice spacing approximately 0.1 fm generated using a non-perturbatively improved clover action. In nature the closest equivalent of this heavy-light system is the B_s meson, which allows us to compare our lattice calculations to experimental results (where available) or to give a prediction where the excited states, particularly P-wave states, should lie. We pay special attention to the spin-orbit splitting, to see which one of the states (for a given angular momentum L) has the lower energy. An attempt is made to understand these results in terms of the Dirac equation.Comment: 35 pages. v3: Data from two new lattices added. New results in several chapter

The Changing Fractions of Type Ia Supernova NUV-Optical Subclasses with Redshift

UV and optical photometry of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) at low redshift have revealed the existence of two distinct color groups, NUV-red and NUV-blue events. The color curves differ primarily by an offset, with the NUV-blue u- color curves bluer than the NUV-red curves by 0.4 mag. For a sample of 23 low-z SNe~Ia observed with Swift, the NUV-red group dominates by a ratio of 2:1. We compare rest-frame UV/optical spectrophotometry of intermediate and high-z SNe Ia with UVOT photometry and HST spectrophotometry of low-z SNe Ia, finding that the same two color groups exist at higher-z, but with the NUV-blue events as the dominant group. Within each red/blue group, we do not detect any offset in color for different redshifts, providing insight into how SN~Ia UV emission evolves with redshift. Through spectral comparisons of SNe~Ia with similar peak widths and phase, we explore the wavelength range that produces the UV/OPT color differences. We show that the ejecta velocity of NUV-red SNe is larger than that of NUV-blue objects by roughly 12% on average. This velocity difference can explain some of the UV/optical color difference, but differences in the strengths of spectral features seen in meanspectra require additional explanation. Because of the different b-v colors for these groups, NUV-red SNe will have their extinction underestimated using common techniques. This, in turn, leads to under-estimation of the optical luminosity of the NUV-blue SNe~Ia, in particular, for the high-redshift cosmological sample. Not accounting for this effect should thus produce a distance bias that increases with redshift and could significantly bias measurements of cosmological parameters.Comment: submitted to Ap

Swift UVOT Grism Observations of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae - I. Observations and Data Reduction

Ultraviolet (UV) observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are useful tools for understanding progenitor systems and explosion physics. In particular, UV spectra of SNe Ia, which probe the outermost layers, are strongly affected by the progenitor metallicity. In this work, we present 120 Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory UV spectra of 39 nearby SNe Ia. This sample is the largest UV (lambda < 2900 A) spectroscopic sample of SNe Ia to date, doubling the number of UV spectra and tripling the number of SNe with UV spectra. The sample spans nearly the full range of SN Ia light-curve shapes (delta m(B) ~ 0.6-1.8 mag). The fast turnaround of Swift allows us to obtain UV spectra at very early times, with 13 out of 39 SNe having their first spectra observed >~ 1 week before peak brightness and the earliest epoch being 16.5 days before peak brightness. The slitless design of the Swift UV grism complicates the data reduction, which requires separating SN light from underlying host-galaxy light and occasional overlapping stellar light. We present a new data-reduction procedure to mitigate these issues, producing spectra that are significantly improved over those of standard methods. For a subset of the spectra we have nearly simultaneous Hubble Space Telescope UV spectra; the Swift spectra are consistent with these comparison data.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

‘Holding onto trauma?’ The prevalence and predictors of PTSD, anxiety, and depression in police officers working with victims of child abuse, rape, and sexual exploitation

Research into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other common mental disorders (CMDs) in police officers is limited, with the majority of research predominately conducted outside the UK, and no study quantitively examining the role of social support in relation to the mental health of UK police officers working with victims of trauma. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the prevalence and predictors of PTSD and CMD in UK police officers who investigate rape, sexual exploitation, and child abuse, along with the potential protective role of social support. Participants were police officers (n = 353) within one police area, who completed self-report measures of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and social support. Results showed that 23% of officers had potentially clinical levels of PTSD, 26% had moderate to severe levels of anxiety and 35% had moderate to severe levels of depression. Female officers, those of constable rank, those working with victims of child abuse, and those with lowest levels of social support had poorer mental health. There was tentative evidence that social support statistically moderated the relationship between tenure and depression. These findings suggest the need for bespoke help for the sub-group of officers experiencing mental health problems and for further research into the potential protective role of social support

A Study of the Coronal Plasma in RS CVn binary systems

XMM-Newton has been performing comprehensive studies of X-ray bright RS CVn binaries in its Calibration and Guaranteed Time programs. We present results from ongoing investigations in the context of a systematic study of coronal emission from RS CVns. We concentrate in this paper on coronal abundances and investigate the abundance pattern in RS CVn binaries as a function of activity and average temperature. A transition from an Inverse First Ionization Potential (FIP) effect towards an absence of a clear trend is found in intermediately active RS CVn systems. This scheme corresponds well into the long-term evolution from an IFIP to a FIP effect found in solar analogs. We further study variations in the elemental abundances during a large flare.Comment: to appear in The Twelfth Cool Stars, Stellar Systems and the Sun, eds. A. Brown, T.R. Ayres, G.M. Harper, (Boulder: Univ. of Colorado), in pres

Consultation with complementary medicine practitioners by individuals with chronic conditions: Characteristics and reasons for consultation in Australian clinical settings.

The duration and complexity of chronic conditions leads patients to consult complementary medicine (CM) practitioners, yet such care-seeking by this clinical population has not been thoroughly examined. This study describes characteristics and reasons for consultation amongst those with chronic conditions who consult CM practitioners. A cross-sectional study surveyed patients in clinics of 39 CM practitioners from the five most accessed CM professions in Australia (chiropractic, massage, osteopathy, acupuncture, naturopathy). Between November 2018 and March 2019, CM practitioners invited 15 consecutive adult patients (n = 585 invited) to a self-administered, hard-copy survey covering socio-demographics, chronic condition diagnoses, CM service utilisation and reasons for consulting the CM practitioner. In total, 199 surveys were returned, producing a final sample of n = 191. Chronic conditions were reported by 153 (80.1%) participants, who were most commonly female (82.4%), aged over 65 years (29.0%), married (55.9%), vocational/trade qualified (40.1%), employed (62.5%), reported financial manageability as not too bad (48.0%), held private health insurance generally (79.0%) and specifically for CM (71.1%). Some socio-demographic differences were found depending on the profession consulted. Most participants (75.0%) had attended five or more consultations with the CM practitioner. The reasons most commonly given by participants with chronic conditions for consulting the CM practitioner were This healthcare professional is supportive and compassionate (n = 136, 97.1%), I believe this type of healthcare is safe (n = 131, 95.6%), Improve general wellbeing and prevent future health problems (n = 125, 89.3%) and This type of healthcare gives me hope about my future health (n = 108, 85.7%). These findings suggest that individuals with chronic conditions may consult CM practitioners to address unmet well-being or quality of life needs and for compassionate support. The role CM practitioners fill for those with chronic conditions requires further exploration to develop optimal policy and services to manage the growing challenges chronic conditions present to health systems

The use of English as a lingua franca in translation

In translation, not only two languages but two cultures come into contact which means that translators must consider who wrote the text, when, why, for whom and who is now reading it and for what purpose. In the wake of rapid technological advances and the need to spread information quickly and efficiently, translation has grown in importance in the globalized world. So has its reliance on English in its role as a global lingua franca. English is often being used for ‘interculturalizing’ native languages but it is also true that English texts are written by speakers who use English as a lingua franca (ELF) with the additional consequence of local languages being incorporated into the texts. This is the linguistic hybridity used in constructing a wider view of the world. However, the prime aim of any lingua franca communication is mutual intelligibility. Saussure wrote about the contrasting principles of provincialism (ésprit de clocher) and what he termed intercourse: the need for broader communication. We can see Saussure’s principles as two imperatives: the cooperative and territorial imperatives. That is to say that language change is brought about by the ‘cooperative imperative’ as we need to continually modify our language in order to communicate with other people. At the same time, there is the ‘territorial imperative’ to secure and protect our own space and sustain our separate social and individual identity. In this study, the translation of linguistic units can only be understood when considered together with the cultural contexts in which they arise, and in which they are used. Blogging in Singapore and the Philippines is part of the ‘cooperative and territorial imperatives’ where the use of English as a lingua franca is intertwined with translanguaging