Exploring views on satisfaction with life in young children with chronic illness: an innovative approach to the collection of self-report data from children under 11

The objective of this study was to explore young children’s views on the impact of chronic illness on their life in order to inform future development of a patient-based self-report health outcome measure. We describe an approach to facilitating self-report views from young children with chronic illness. A board game was designed in order to obtain qualitative data from 39 children with a range of chronic illness conditions and 38 healthy controls ranging in age from 3 to 11 years. The format was effective in engaging young children in a self-report process of determining satisfaction with life and identified nine domains. The board game enabled children aged 5–11 years with chronic illness to describe the effects of living with illness on home, family, friends, school and life in general. It generated direct, non-interpreted material from children who, because of their age, may have been considered unable or limited their ability to discuss and describe how they feel. Obtaining this information for children aged 4 and under continues to be a challenge

WFI J2026-4536 and WFI J2033-4723: Two New Quadruple Gravitational Lenses

We report the discovery of two new gravitationally lensed quasars, WFI J2026-4536 and WFI J2033-4723, at respective source redshifts of z=2.23 and z=1.66. Both systems are quadruply imaged and have similar PG1115-like image configurations. WFI J2026-4536 has a maximum image separation of 1.4", a total brightness of g = 16.5, and a relatively simple lensing environment, while WFI J2033-4723 has a maximum image separation of 2.5", an estimated total brightness of g = 17.9, and a more complicated environment of at least six galaxies within 20". The primary lensing galaxies are detected for both systems after PSF subtraction. Several of the broadband flux ratios for the two lenses show a strong (0.1-0.4 mags) trend with wavelength, suggesting either microlensing or differential extinction through the lensing galaxy. For WFI J2026-4536, the total quasar flux has dimmed by 0.1 mag in the blue but only half as much in the red over three months, suggestive of microlensing-induced variations. For WFI J2033-4723, resolved spectra of some of the quasar components reveal emission line flux ratios that agree better with the macromodel predictions than either the broadband or continuum ratios, also indicative of microlensing. The predicted differential time delays for WFI J2026-4536 are short, ranging from 1-2 weeks for the long delay, but are longer for WFI J2033-4723, ranging from 1-2 months. Both systems hold promise for future monitoring campaigns aimed at microlensing or time delay studies.Comment: 34 pages, including 9 postscript figures. Submitted to A

Unconventional Route to High-Pressure and -Temperature Synthesis of GeSn Solid Solutions

Ge and Sn are unreactive at ambient conditions. Their significant promise for optoelectronic applications is thus largely confined to thin film investigations. We sought to remove barriers to reactivity here by accessing a unique pressure, 10 GPa, where the two elements can adopt the same crystal structure (tetragonal, $I4_1$/$amd$) and exhibit compatible atomic radii. The route to GeSn solid solution, however, even under these directed conditions, is different. Reaction upon heating at 10 GPa occurs between unlike crystal structures (Ge, $Fd3m$ and Sn, $I$4/$mmm$), which also have highly incompatible atomic radii. They should not react, but they do. A reconstructive transformation of $I$4/$mmm$ into the $I$4$_1$/$amd$ solid solution then follows. The new tetragonal GeSn solid solution ($I$4$_1$/$amda$ = 5.280(1) Å, c = 2.915(1) Å, Z = 4 at 9.9 GPa and 298 K) also constitutes the structural and electronic bridge between 4-fold and newly prepared 8-fold coordinated alloy cubic symmetries. Furthermore, using this high-pressure route, bulk cubic diamond-structured GeSn alloys can now be obtained at ambient pressure. The findings here remove confining conventional criteria on routes to synthesis. This opens innovative avenues to advanced materials development

Greater improvements in diet quality among overweight participants following a group-based commercial weight loss programme than those receiving support to lose weight in primary care.

BACKGROUND: Relatively little is known about dietary changes and their relationships with weight change during behavioural weight loss interventions. In a secondary analysis of data from a multicentre RCT, we investigated whether greater improvements in diet would be achieved by overweight adults following a 12 month group-based commercial weight loss programme (CP) than those receiving standard care (SC) in primary practice, and if these dietary changes were associated with greater weight loss. METHODS: Adults with a BMI 27-35 kg/m2 and >1 risk factor for obesity-related disorders were recruited in study centres in Australia and the UK during 2007-2008. Dietary intake and body weight were measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Linear mixed effects models compared mean changes in dietary macronutrient intake, fibre density and energy density over time between groups, and their relationships with weight loss. RESULTS: The CP group demonstrated greater mean weight loss than the SC group at 6 months (3.3 kg, 95% CI: 2.2, 4.4) and 12 months (3.3 kg, 95% CI: 2.1, 4.5). Diet quality improved in both intervention groups at 6 and 12 months. However, the CP group (n = 228) achieved significantly greater mean reductions in energy intake (mean difference; 95% CI: - 503 kJ/d; - 913, - 93), dietary energy density (- 0.48 MJ/g; - 0.81, - 0.16), total fat (- 6.9 g/d; - 11.9, - 1.8), saturated fat (- 3.3 g/d; - 5.4, - 1.1), and significantly greater mean increases in fibre density (0.30 g/MJ; 0.15, 0.44) at 6 months than the SC group (n = 239). Similar differences persisted at 12 months and the CP group showed greater mean increases in protein density (0.65 g/MJ). In both groups, weight loss was associated with increased fibre density (0.68 kg per g/MJ, 95% CI: 0.08, 1.27) and protein density (0.26 kg per g/MJ, 95% CI: 0.10, 0.41). CONCLUSIONS: Following a group-based commercial program led to greater improvements in diet quality than standard care. Increases in dietary protein and fibre density were independently associated with weight loss in both behavioural weight loss interventions. Greater increases in protein and fibre density in the commercial program likely contributed to their greater weight loss. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN: ISRCTN85485463 Registered 03/08/2007 Retrospectively Registered

Lidar sampling for large-area forest characterization: A review

The ability to use digital remotely sensed data for forest inventory is often limited by the nature of the measures, which, with the exception of multi-angular or stereo observations, are largely insensitive to vertically distributed attributes. As a result, empirical estimates are typically made to characterize attributes such as height, volume, or biomass, with known asymptotic relationships as signal saturation occurs. Lidar (light detection and ranging) has emerged as a robust means to collect and subsequently characterize vertically distributed attributes. Lidar has been established as an appropriate data source for forest inventory purposes; however, large area monitoring and mapping activities with lidar remain challenging due to the logistics, costs, and data volumes involved.The use of lidar as a sampling tool for large-area estimation may mitigate some or all of these problems. A number of factors drive, and are common to, the use of airborne profiling, airborne scanning, and spaceborne lidar systems as sampling tools for measuring and monitoring forest resources across areas that range in size from tens of thousands to millions of square kilometers. In this communication, we present the case for lidar sampling as a means to enable timely and robust large-area characterizations. We briefly outline the nature of different lidar systems and data, followed by the theoretical and statistical underpinnings for lidar sampling. Current applications are presented and the future potential of using lidar in an integrated sampling framework for large area ecosystem characterization and monitoring is presented. We also include recommendations regarding statistics, lidar sampling schemes, applications (including data integration and stratification), and subsequent information generation. © 2012

Planet Hunters. VIII. Characterization of 41 Long-Period Exoplanet Candidates from Kepler Archival Data

The census of exoplanets is incomplete for orbital distances larger than 1 AU. Here, we present 41 long-period planet candidates in 38 systems identified by Planet Hunters based on Kepler archival data (Q0-Q17). Among them, 17 exhibit only one transit, 14 have two visible transits and 10 have more than three visible transits. For planet candidates with only one visible transit, we estimate their orbital periods based on transit duration and host star properties. The majority of the planet candidates in this work (75%) have orbital periods that correspond to distances of 1-3 AU from their host stars. We conduct follow-up imaging and spectroscopic observations to validate and characterize planet host stars. In total, we obtain adaptive optics images for 33 stars to search for possible blending sources. Six stars have stellar companions within 4". We obtain high-resolution spectra for 6 stars to determine their physical properties. Stellar properties for other stars are obtained from the NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Kepler Stellar Catalog by Huber et al. (2014). We validate 7 planet candidates that have planet confidence over 0.997 (3-{\sigma} level). These validated planets include 3 single-transit planets (KIC-3558849b, KIC-5951458b, and KIC-8540376c), 3 planets with double transits (KIC-8540376b, KIC-9663113b, and KIC-10525077b), and 1 planet with 4 transits (KIC-5437945b). This work provides assessment regarding the existence of planets at wide separations and the associated false positive rate for transiting observation (17%-33%). More than half of the long-period planets with at least three transits in this paper exhibit transit timing variations up to 41 hours, which suggest additional components that dynamically interact with the transiting planet candidates. The nature of these components can be determined by follow-up radial velocity and transit observations.Comment: Published on ApJ, 815, 127 Notations of validated planets are changed in accordance with naming convention of NASA Exoplanet Archiv