The GEOS-2 heat pipe system and its performance in test and orbit

GEOS 2 satellite heat transfer pipe performance in test and orbi

Cancer incidence in a population potentially exposed to radium-226 at Dalgety Bay, Scotland.

Cancer incidence in the Dalgety Bay area of Fife, Scotland, was examined following the detection of radium-226 particles by routine radiation monitoring. The study was confounded by rapid population growth, demographic change and the relatively high socioeconomic status of the Dalgety Bay population. Health Board Primary Care Division records were used to calculate population estimates and Carstairs deprivation score was used to adjust for socioeconomic characteristics. In the period 1975-90, 211 residents were registered as having cancer compared with 214.21 expected from Scottish national rates. Of specific cancers possibly associated with radiation, the incidence of stomach, liver, lung, bone, prostate, bladder and kidney cancer and lymphoma were lower than expected while colon, rectum, pancreas, skin, breast and thyroid cancer and multiple myeloma and leukaemia were higher. There were three cases of childhood leukaemia compared with 1.22 expected. The only statistically significant differences observed were for pancreas (11 cases, O/E 2.28), lung (25 cases, O/E 0.65) and non-melanoma skin (36 cases, O/E 1.50). Stomach cancer was of borderline statistical significance (four cases, O/E 0.40). Adjustments for socioeconomic factors accounted for the apparently low incidence of stomach and lung cancer and, to a lesser extent, skin cancer, which remained of borderline statistical significance. Results in relation to pancreas cancer were unchanged. The observations of raised incidence of pancreas and skin cancer arose in the context of a survey of 17 cancer sites, from which the finding of two or more statistically significant results is not unusual (P = 0.21), and the numbers of cases involved were small. The epidemiological evidence for an association between radiation exposure and pancreas cancer risk is weak. Stronger evidence exists for an association with skin cancer. In the present study the anatomical distribution of the 36 cases was similar to that found elsewhere in Scotland

Will the Scottish Cancer Target for the year 2000 be met? The use of cancer registration and death records to predict future cancer incidence and mortality in Scotland.

Cancer mortality data reflect disease incidence and the effectiveness of treatment. Incidence data, however, reflect the burden of disease in the population and indicate the need for prevention measures, diagnostic services and cancer treatment facilities. Monitoring of targets mandates that both be considered. The Scottish Cancer Target, established in 1991, proposed that a reduction of 15% in mortality from cancer in the under-65s should be achieved between 1986 and 2000. Each year in Scotland approximately 8300 persons under 65 are diagnosed with cancer and 4500 die from the disease. The most common malignancies, in terms of both incident cases and deaths, in the under-65s, are lung and large bowel cancer in males, and breast, large bowel and lung cancer in females. A decrease of 6% in the number of cancer cases diagnosed in males under 65 is predicted between 1986 and 2000, whereas the number of cases in females in the year 2000 is expected to remain at the 1986 level. In contrast, substantial reductions in mortality are expected for both sexes: 17% and 25% in males and females respectively. Demographic changes will influence the numbers of cancer cases and deaths in the Scottish population in the year 2000. However, long-term trends in the major risk factors, such as smoking, are likely to be the most important determinants of the future cancer burden

A new technique for elucidating β\beta-decay schemes which involve daughter nuclei with very low energy excited states

A new technique of elucidating $\beta$-decay schemes of isotopes with large density of states at low excitation energies has been developed, in which a Broad Energy Germanium (BEGe) detector is used in conjunction with coaxial hyper-pure germanium detectors. The power of this technique has been demonstrated on the example of 183Hg decay. Mass-separated samples of 183Hg were produced by a deposition of the low-energy radioactive-ion beam delivered by the ISOLDE facility at CERN. The excellent energy resolution of the BEGe detector allowed $\gamma$ rays energies to be determined with a precision of a few tens of electronvolts, which was sufficient for the analysis of the Rydberg-Ritz combinations in the level scheme. The timestamped structure of the data was used for unambiguous separation of $\gamma$ rays arising from the decay of 183Hg from those due to the daughter decays

Characterizing and Predicting Canadian Adolescents’ Internalizing Symptoms In The First Year Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

To date, most longitudinal studies of adolescents’ internalizing symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic include few time points, limiting knowledge about the long-term course of adolescents’ mental health during the pandemic. Moreover, examining intraindividual variability in symptoms, which may have important implications for adolescents’ adjustment beyond mean or “typical” symptoms, requires multiple time points. We examined the course of internalizing symptoms in 271 Ontario adolescents (mean n = 193 across time points) during the first year of the pandemic (March 2020–April 2021) via mixed-effect location scale models, drawing upon established internalizing symptom risk factors as predictors of mean trends and intraindividual variability. Adolescents’ internalizing symptoms were relatively stable and generally low over the first year of the pandemic, with severity peaking in February and April 2021. Girls showed more symptoms on average and greater intraindividual variability in symptoms. Parents’ depressive symptoms predicted intraindividual variability in adolescents’ anxious and depressive symptoms. Adolescents’ symptoms were stable and generally below clinical cutoffs. However, female adolescents and those whose parents experienced more depressive symptoms were most vulnerable to the stress of the pandemic. Implications for intervention and prevention efforts are discussed

Manipulation and removal of defects in spontaneous optical patterns

Defects play an important role in a number of fields dealing with ordered structures. They are often described in terms of their topology, mutual interaction and their statistical characteristics. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally the possibility of an active manipulation and removal of defects. We focus on the spontaneous formation of two-dimensional spatial structures in a nonlinear optical system, a liquid crystal light valve under single optical feedback. With increasing distance from threshold, the spontaneously formed hexagonal pattern becomes disordered and contains several defects. A scheme based on Fourier filtering allows us to remove defects and to restore spatial order. Starting without control, the controlled area is progressively expanded, such that defects are swept out of the active area.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Turbulent Mixing in the Interstellar Medium -- an application for Lagrangian Tracer Particles

We use 3-dimensional numerical simulations of self-gravitating compressible turbulent gas in combination with Lagrangian tracer particles to investigate the mixing process of molecular hydrogen (H2) in interstellar clouds. Tracer particles are used to represent shock-compressed dense gas, which is associated with H2. We deposit tracer particles in regions of density contrast in excess of ten times the mean density. Following their trajectories and using probability distribution functions, we find an upper limit for the mixing timescale of H2, which is of order 0.3 Myr. This is significantly smaller than the lifetime of molecular clouds, which demonstrates the importance of the turbulent mixing of H2 as a preliminary stage to star formation.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, conference proceedings "Turbulent Mixing and Beyond 2007

Predicting Filipino Mothers\u27 and Fathers\u27 Reported Use of Corporal Punishment From Education, Authoritarian Attitudes, and Endorsement of Corporal Punishment

The relations of education, authoritarian childrearing attitudes, and endorsement of corporal punishment to Filipino parents\u27 reported use of corporal punishment were examined using two waves of data. Structured interviews using self-report questionnaires were conducted with 117 mothers and 98 fathers from 120 families when their children were 8 years old, and when their children were 9 years old. Path analyses showed that, among mothers, higher education predicted lower authoritarian attitudes, which in turn predicted lower reports of corporal punishment use. Among fathers, higher education predicted lower endorsement of corporal punishment, which in turn predicted lower reports of its use. Results suggest that education has an indirect relation to use of corporal punishment through parenting cognitions, and highlight distinctions in Filipino mothers\u27 and fathers\u27 parenting roles

Studying stellar binary systems with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna using Delayed Rejection Markov chain Monte Carlo methods

Bayesian analysis of LISA data sets based on Markov chain Monte Carlo methods has been shown to be a challenging problem, in part due to the complicated structure of the likelihood function consisting of several isolated local maxima that dramatically reduces the efficiency of the sampling techniques. Here we introduce a new fully Markovian algorithm, a Delayed Rejection Metropolis-Hastings Markov chain Monte Carlo method, to efficiently explore these kind of structures and we demonstrate its performance on selected LISA data sets containing a known number of stellar-mass binary signals embedded in Gaussian stationary noise.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, accepted in CQG (GWDAW-13 proceedings

Methodological approaches to determining the marine radiocarbon reservoir effect

The marine radiocarbon reservoir effect is an offset in 14C age between contemporaneous organisms from the terrestrial environment and organisms that derive their carbon from the marine environment. Quantification of this effect is of crucial importance for correct calibration of the <sup>14</sup>C ages of marine-influenced samples to the calendrical timescale. This is fundamental to the construction of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental chronologies when such samples are employed in <sup>14</sup>C analysis. Quantitative measurements of temporal variations in regional marine reservoir ages also have the potential to be used as a measure of process changes within Earth surface systems, due to their link with climatic and oceanic changes. The various approaches to quantification of the marine radiocarbon reservoir effect are assessed, focusing particularly on the North Atlantic Ocean. Currently, the global average marine reservoir age of surface waters, R(t), is c. 400 radiocarbon years; however, regional values deviate from this as a function of climate and oceanic circulation systems. These local deviations from R(t) are expressed as +R values. Hence, polar waters exhibit greater reservoir ages (δR = c. +400 to +800 <sup>14</sup>C y) than equatorial waters (δR = c. 0 <sup>14</sup>C y). Observed temporal variations in δR appear to reflect climatic and oceanographic changes. We assess three approaches to quantification of marine reservoir effects using known age samples (from museum collections), tephra isochrones (present onshore/offshore) and paired marine/terrestrial samples (from the same context in, for example, archaeological sites). The strengths and limitations of these approaches are evaluated using examples from the North Atlantic region. It is proposed that, with a suitable protocol, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurements on paired, short-lived, single entity marine and terrestrial samples from archaeological deposits is the most promising approach to constraining changes over at least the last 5 ky BP