The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Discriminative ability of quality of life measures in multiple sclerosis

Abstract Background Though many people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have comorbidities, the use of generic and disease-specific health related quality of life (HRQOL) scales to discriminate the effects of comorbidity has not been established. The utility of these scales to discriminate differences between persons with varying levels of disability is also unknown. Methods Using online questionnaires, a convenience sample of Albertans with MS was recruited between July 2011 and March 2013. Participants completed demographic questions, a validated comorbidity questionnaire, a self-reported disability scale, and the following HRQOL scales: the Short Form (SF)-36, SF-6D, Health Utilities Index-Mark III (HUI-III), and Multiple Sclerosis Quality of Life-54 (MSQOL-54). The ability of each HRQOL scale to distinguish between comorbidity groups was assessed using a one-way analysis of covariance, adjusting for age, sex, disease course, and disability level. Results Five hundred sixty three participants completed all relevant questionnaires. All HRQOL measures distinguished between persons with or without depression, while none were able to distinguish between participants with or without hypertension, thyroid disease, irritable bowel syndrome, or osteoporosis. The SF-36 physical scale, SF-6D, HUI-III, and MSQOL-54 physical scales were able to distinguish between all disability groups, though the HUI-III was better able to distinguish between individuals with moderate versus severe disability. Conclusions Disease-specific measures would discriminate better between those with and without comorbidities than generic-specific measures and the HUI-III would discriminate best between persons with differing severities of disability. Generic or disease-specific measures may be useful in future studies examining the effects of comorbidity in MS and the effects of treatment of comorbidities in MS

Additional file 3: of Discriminative ability of quality of life measures in multiple sclerosis

Table S2. Analysis of covariance for HRQOL measures by comorbidity status. (DOCX 14 kb