26,091 research outputs found

    Attitudes of advanced Australian medical oncology trainees to rural practice

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    Aim: To identify the views of medical oncology trainees regarding rural training posts and rural practice overall, and to identify factors that may improve recruitment. Methods: A questionnaire was posted to all advanced oncology trainees in Australia in June 2006. The trainees were questioned on the perceived advantages and disadvantages of rural practice, their experience during previous rural rotations and potential incentives and barriers in recruiting trainees and specialist oncologists to regional and rural centers. Results: There was a 60% response rate. Of all participants 58% had considered rural practice. Those with a rural family background were more likely to have considered rural practice. Attitudes based on responses to listed disadvantages and advantages of rural practice were heterogenous. Lifestyle factors seemed to be of particular importance. Although there were perceived deficiencies in opportunities for professional education in rural oncology rotations, 94% felt their rotation had been a positive experience overall and 62% were more likely to consider a rural career following their rural rotation. Improving locum cover for leave was seen as a potential incentive by 97% trainees. Conclusion: Despite positive attitudes towards rural practice, many barriers exist preventing recruitment of medical oncology trainees to rural areas, in particular lifestyle factors that are difficult to modify. Factors that can be improved include improving access to clinical trials, enabling access to locum cover. Educational opportunities for current rural trainees need to be improved. Further study into potential incentives to enhance rural recruitment is required

    Modeling Nonaxisymmetric Bow Shocks: Solution Method and Exact Analytic Solutions

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    A new solution method is presented for steady-state, momentum-conserving, non-axisymmetric bow shocks and colliding winds in the thin-shell limit. This is a generalization of previous formulations to include a density gradient in the pre-shock ambient medium, as well as anisotropy in the pre-shock wind. For cases where the wind is unaccelerated, the formalism yields exact, analytic solutions. Solutions are presented for two bow shock cases: (1) that due to a star moving supersonically with respect to an ambient medium with a density gradient perpendicular to the stellar velocity, and (2) that due to a star with a misaligned, axisymmetric wind moving in a uniform medium. It is also shown under quite general circumstances that the total rate of energy thermalization in the bow shock is independent of the details of the wind asymmetry, including the orientation of the non-axisymmetric driving wind, provided the wind is non-accelerating and point-symmetric. A typical feature of the solutions is that the region near the standoff point is tilted, so that the star does not lie along the bisector of a parabolic fit to the standoff region. The principal use of this work is to infer the origin of bow shock asymmetries, whether due to the wind or ambient medium, or both.Comment: 26 pages and 6 figures accepted to ap

    Complexes of unsaturated and other organoberyllium compounds

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    Thermal stress cycling of GaAs solar cells

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    A thermal cycling experiment was performed on GaAs solar cells to establish the electrical and structural integrity of these cells under the temperature conditions of a simulated low-Earth orbit of 3-year duration. Thirty single junction GaAs cells were obtained and tests were performed to establish the beginning-of-life characteristics of these cells. The tests consisted of cell I-V power output curves, from which were obtained short-circuit current, open circuit voltage, fill factor, and cell efficiency, and optical micrographs, spectral response, and ion microprobe mass analysis (IMMA) depth profiles on both the front surfaces and the front metallic contacts of the cells. Following 5,000 thermal cycles, the performance of the cells was reexamined in addition to any factors which might contribute to performance degradation. It is established that, after 5,000 thermal cycles, the cells retain their power output with no loss of structural integrity or change in physical appearance

    Growth or decline in the Church of England during the decade of Evangelism: did the Churchmanship of the Bishop matter?

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    The Decade of Evangelism occupied the attention of the Church of England throughout the 1990s. The present study employs the statistics routinely published by the Church of England in order to assess two matters: the extent to which these statistics suggest that the 43 individual dioceses finished the decade in a stronger or weaker position than they had entered it and the extent to which, according to these statistics, the performance of dioceses led by bishops shaped in the Evangelical tradition differed from the performance of dioceses led by bishops shaped in the Catholic tradition. The data demonstrated that the majority of dioceses were performing less effectively at the end of the decade than at the beginning, in terms of a range of membership statistics, and that the rate of decline varied considerably from one diocese to another. The only exception to the trend was provided by the diocese of London, which experienced some growth. The data also demonstrated that little depended on the churchmanship of the diocesan bishop in shaping diocesan outcomes on the performance indicators employed in the study

    The signalling hypothesis revisited: Evidence from foreign IPOs

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    While the signalling hypothesis has played a prominent role as the economic rationale associated with the initial public offering (IPO) underpricing puzzle (Welch, 1989), the empirical evidence on it has been mixed at best (Jegadeesh, Weinstein and Welch, 1993; Michaely and Shaw, 1994). This paper revisits the issue from the vantage point of close to two decades of additional experience by examining a sample of foreign IPOs – firms from both financially integrated and segmented markets – in US markets. The evidence indicates that signalling does matter in determining IPO underpricing, especially for firms domiciled in countries with segmented markets, which as a result face higher information asymmetry and lack access to external capital markets. We find a significant positive and robust relationship between the degree of IPO underpricing and segmented-market firms’ seasoned equity offering activities. For firms from integrated markets, in contrast, the analyst-coverage-purchase hypothesis appears to matter more in explaining IPO underpricing and the aftermarket price appreciation explains these firms’ seasoned equity offering activities. The evidence, therefore, clearly supports the notion that some firms are willing to leave money on the table voluntarily to get a more favorable price at seasoned offerings when they are substantially wealth constrained, a prediction embedded in the signalling hypothesis.IPO underpricing; seasoned equity offering; cross-listing; signalling hypothesis; financial market integration; market-feedback hypothesis

    Young people's attitudes to religious diversity : quantitative approaches from social psychology and empirical theology

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    This essay discusses the design of the quantitative component of the ‘Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity’ project, conceived by Professor Robert Jackson within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and presents some preliminary findings from the data. The quantitative component followed and built on the qualitative component within a mixed method design. The argument is advanced in seven steps: introducing the major sources of theory on which the quantitative approach builds from the psychology of religion and from empirical theology; locating the empirical traditions of research among young people that have shaped the study; clarifying the notions and levels of measurement employed in the study anticipating the potential for various forms of data analysis; discussing some of the established measures incorporated in the survey; defining the ways in which the sample was structured to reflect the four nations of the UK, and London; illustrating the potential within largely descriptive cross-tabulation forms of analysis; and illustrating the potential within more sophisticated multivariate analytic models

    Possible High-Redshift, Low-Luminosity AGN Activity in the Hubble Deep Field

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    In the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), twelve candidate sources of high-redshift (z > 3.5) AGN activity have been identified. The color selection criteria were established by passing spectra of selected quasars and Seyfert galaxies (appropriately redshifted and modified for "Lyman forest" absorption), as well as stars, observed normal and starburst galaxies, and galaxy models for various redshifts through the filters used for the HDF observations. The actual identification of AGN candidates also involved convolving a Laplacian-of-Gaussian filter with the HDF images, thereby removing relatively flat galactic backgrounds and leaving only the point-like components in the centers. Along with positions and colors, estimated redshifts and absolute magnitudes are reported, with the candidates falling toward the faint end of the AGN luminosity function. One candidate has been previously observed spectroscopically, with a measured redshift of 4.02. The number of sources reported here is consistent with a simple extrapolation of the observed quasar luminosity function to magnitude 30 in B_Johnson. Implications for ionization of the intergalactic medium and for gravitational lensing are discussed.Comment: 10 pages LaTex plus 2 separate files (Table 1 which is a two-page landscape LaTex file; and Figure 6 which is a large (0.7 MB) non-encapsulated postscript file). Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journa
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