Valuing the unpaid contribution of community health volunteers to mass drug administration programs

Community health volunteers (CHVs) are being used within a growing number of healthcare interventions, and they have become a cornerstone for the delivery of mass drug administration within many neglected tropical disease control programs. However, a greater understanding of the methods used to value the unpaid time CHVs contribute to healthcare programs is needed. We outline the two main approaches used to value CHVs' unpaid time (the opportunity cost and the replacement cost approaches). We found that for mass drug administration programs the estimates of the economic costs relating to the CHVs' unpaid time can be significant, with the averages of the different studies varying between US$0.05-0.16 per treatment. We estimated that the time donated by CHVs' to the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control alone would be valued between US$60-90 million. There is a need for greater transparency and consistency in the methods used to value CHVs' unpaid time

Denunciation and the construction of norms in group conflict: examples from an Al-Qaeda-supporting group

In situations of violent group conflict, group members often argue about how to deal with the outgroup. While some argue for aggression, force and separation, others argue for negotiation and cooperation. Each side attempts to persuade the group that their own position is normative and is most in line with the interests and essence of the group. These arguments often involve denunciations of opponents as disloyal or deviant. In such situations, definitions of group identities and norms, and what counts as loyalty and deviance, are therefore disputed. This paper analyses how a UK-based Al-Qaeda-supporting organisation denounces ‘moderate’ Muslims in the UK who engage with secular institutions and who ally themselves with non-Muslims in political disputes. Drawing on theological, historical and political arguments, a prescriptive norm is constructed whereby the correct behaviour of Muslims in the West is to avoid participation in secular political systems and to avoid political cooperation with non-Muslims. Muslims who are seen as breaking these norms are denounced and denigrated in a variety of ways by assigning them a range of deviant identity positions. Denunciations involve explanatory accounts which construct opponents as unworthy representatives of the group based on their deviation from Islam, or from ignorance, cowardice, mental weakness or self-interest. This paper illustrates that the practice of denunciation is an important aspect of the organisation of group conflict. Finally, it argues that it is dangerous for social psychologists to treat group norms and protoypes as consensual

The Luminosity-Metallicity Relation of distant luminous infrared galaxies

One hundred and five 15mu selected objects in three ISO deep survey fields (CFRS 3h, UDSR and UDSF) are studied on the basis of the high quality optical spectra with resolution R>1000 from VLT/FORS2. Ninety two objects (88%) have secure redshifts, ranging from 0 to 1.16 with a median value of 0.587. Considerable care is taken in estimating the extinction property of individual galaxy, which can seriously affect diagnostic diagrams and estimates of star formation rates and of metal abundances. Two independent methods have been adopted to estimate extinction, e.g. Balmer line ratio (A_V(Balmer)) and energy balance between IR and Hbeta luminosities (A_V(IR)). For most of the z>0.4 luminous IR galaxies (LIRGs), the two extinction coefficients are consistent well, with median values of A_V(IR) = 2.36. These distant LIRGs show many properties strikingly in common with those of local (IRAS) LIRGs studied by Veilleux et al. (1995). Our sample can provide a good representation of LIRGs in the distant Universe. Most (>77%) ISO 15mu selected sample galaxies are dominated by star formation. Oxygen abundances (12+log(O/H), derived from R23 and O32) in ISM in the distant LIRGs range from 8.36 to 8.93 with a median value of 8.67. Distant LIRGs present a metal content less than half of that of the local bright disks (i.e. L*). The Pegase2 models predict that total masses (gas + stars) of the distant LIRGs are from 10^{11} Msun to <=10^{12} Msun. A significant fraction of distant large disks are indeed LIRGs. Such massive disks could have formed ~50% of their metals and stellar masses since z~1.Comment: 20 pages, 9 PS figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Developing culturally safe education practices in optometry schools across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

Access to culturally safe health services is a basic human right, however through the lasting effects of colonisation, oppression, and systemic racism, the individual and community health of Indigenous peoples in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have been severely impacted. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Cultural Safety Strategy of the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency, and the Standards of Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety of the Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians Board of New Zealand, recognise the importance of access to safe health care for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori patients, which encompasses both clinical competency and cultural safety. Universities have an ongoing responsibility to ensure their learning and teaching activities result in graduates being able to provide culturally safe practice. This article highlights the emergence of culturally safe practices in the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand optometry curricula over the last five years incorporating Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing into the curricula, understanding the local Indigenous histories and contexts, the adoption of online cultural education modules, and clinical placement partnerships with local Indigenous communities. Whilst there is still much work to do to achieve the goal of graduating culturally safe optometrists, this paper focuses on features that enable or impede progress in the development of culturally safe practices within the optometry programmes to improve eye health equity for Indigenous recognise the diversity of Indigenous cultures across Australia and NZ

Near-IR Search for Lensed Supernovae Behind Galaxy Clusters - II. First Detection and Future Prospects

Powerful gravitational telescopes in the form of massive galaxy clusters can be used to enhance the light collecting power over a limited field of view by about an order of magnitude in flux. This effect is exploited here to increase the depth of a survey for lensed supernovae at near-IR wavelengths. A pilot SN search program conducted with the ISAAC camera at VLT is presented. Lensed galaxies behind the massive clusters A1689, A1835 and AC114 were observed for a total of 20 hours split into 2, 3 and 4 epochs respectively, separated by approximately one month to a limiting magnitude J<24 (Vega). Image subtractions including another 20 hours worth of archival ISAAC/VLT data were used to search for transients with lightcurve properties consistent with redshifted supernovae, both in the new and reference data. The feasibility of finding lensed supernovae in our survey was investigated using synthetic lightcurves of supernovae and several models of the volumetric Type Ia and core-collapse supernova rates as a function of redshift. We also estimate the number of supernova discoveries expected from the inferred star formation rate in the observed galaxies. The methods consistently predict a Poisson mean value for the expected number of SNe in the survey between N_SN=0.8 and 1.6 for all supernova types, evenly distributed between core collapse and Type Ia SN. One transient object was found behind A1689, 0.5" from a galaxy with photometric redshift z_gal=0.6 +- 0.15. The lightcurve and colors of the transient are consistent with being a reddened Type IIP SN at z_SN=0.59. The lensing model predicts 1.4 magnitudes of magnification at the location of the transient, without which this object would not have been detected in the near-IR ground based search described in this paper (unlensed magnitude J~25). (abridged)Comment: Accepted by AA, matches journal versio

Dusty MgII absorbers: population statistics, extinction curves and gamma-ray burst sightlines

We present a new determination of the dust content and near-ultraviolet/optical extinction curves associated with a sample of ~8300 strong (equivalent width > 1A) Mg II absorbers, with redshifts 0.4<z<2.2, identified in Sloan Digital Sky survey (SDSS) spectra of quasars. Taking into account the selection effects that result from dust extinction, including the reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio of an absorber appearing in a reddened quasar spectrum, we find a stronger dependence of E(B-V) on absorber rest equivalent width (EW) than in other published work. The dependence of the median reddening on EW can be reproduced by a power-law model: E(B-V)=.8+/-3*10-4 * EW^(3.48+/-0.3) for 1.0A<EW<5.0A. Observed Mg II samples, derived from flux-limited quasar surveys, are shown to suffer from significant incompleteness at the level of 24+/-4 per cent for absorbers with EW>1A and 34+/-2 per cent for absorbers with EW>2A. Direct determination of the shape of the near-ultraviolet extinction curves for absorbers as a function of E(B-V) show evidence for systematic changes in the form of the extinction curves. At low E(B-V) (>0.05), the extinction curve is well represented by a Small Magellanic Cloud-like extinction curve. For intermediate E(B-V)s (<0.2), approximately a third of MgII absorbers show evidence for a 2175A feature similar to that of the Large Magellanic Cloud. For the small number of high E(B-V) (>0.3) absorbers, the majority of which exhibit strong CaII 3935,3970 absorption, there is evidence for a 2175A feature as strong as that found in the Milky Way. Application of the new results on the dust content of strong Mg II absorbers shows that dusty absorbers can account for a significant proportion, up to a factor of two, of the observed overdensity of absorbers seen towards Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) sightlines, compared to sightlines towards quasars in flux-limited samples. (Abridged)Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRA

Variations of training load, monotony, and strain and dose-response relationships with maximal aerobic speed, maximal oxygen uptake, and isokinetic strength in professional soccer players

This study aimed to identify variations in weekly training load, training monotony, and training strain across a 10-week period (during both, pre- and in-season phases); and to analyze the dose-response relationships between training markers and maximal aerobic speed (MAS), maximal oxygen uptake, and isokinetic strength. Twenty-seven professional soccer players (24.9±3.5 years old) were monitored across the 10-week period using global positioning system units. Players were also tested for maximal aerobic speed, maximal oxygen uptake, and isokinetic strength before and after 10 weeks of training. Large positive correlations were found between sum of training load and extension peak torque in the right lower limb (r = 0.57, 90%CI[0.15;0.82]) and the ratio agonist/antagonist in the right lower limb (r = 0.51, [0.06;0.78]). It was observed that loading measures fluctuated across the period of the study and that the load was meaningfully associated with changes in the fitness status of players. However, those magnitudes of correlations were small-to-large, suggesting that variations in fitness level cannot be exclusively explained by the accumulated load and loading profile

Quasi-stellar objects in the ALHAMBRA survey. I. Photometric redshift accuracy based on a 23 optical-NIR filter photometry

We characterize the ability of the ALHAMBRA survey to assign accurate photo-z's to BLAGN and QSOs based on their ALHAMBRA very-low-resolution optical-NIR spectroscopy. A sample of 170 spectroscopically identified BLAGN and QSOs have been used together with a library of templates (including SEDs from AGN, normal, starburst galaxies and stars) in order to fit the 23 photometric data points provided by ALHAMBRA in the optical and NIR (20 medium-band optical filters plus the standard JHKs). We find that the ALHAMBRA photometry is able to provide an accurate photo-z and spectral classification for ~88% of the spectroscopic sources over 2.5 deg^2 in different areas of the survey, all of them brighter than m678=23.5 (equivalent to r(SLOAN)~24.0). The derived photo-z accuracy is better than 1% and comparable to the most recent results in other cosmological fields. The fraction of outliers (~12%) is mainly caused by the larger photometric errors for the faintest sources and the intrinsic variability of the BLAGN/QSO population. A small fraction of outliers may have an incorrectly assigned spectroscopic redshift. The definition of the ALHAMBRA survey in terms of the number of filters, filter properties, area coverage and depth is able to provide photometric redshifts for BLAGN/QSOs with a precision similar to any previous survey that makes use of medium-band optical photometry. In agreement with previous literature results, our analysis also reveals that, in the 0<z<4 redshift interval, very accurate photo-z can be obtained without the use of near-IR broadband photometry at the expense of a slight increase of outliers. The NIR importance is expected to increase at higher redshifts (z>4). These results are relevant for the design of future optical follow-ups of surveys with a large fraction of BLAGN, as it is the case for X-rays or radio surveys.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

Broad-line Balmer Decrements in Blue Active Galactic Nuclei

We have investigated the broad-line Balmer decrements (Halpha/Hbeta) for a large, homogeneous sample of Seyfert 1 galaxies and QSOs using spectroscopic data obtained in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The sample, drawn from the Fourth Data Release, comprises 446 low redshift (z < 0.35) active galactic nuclei (AGN) that have blue optical continua as indicated by the spectral slopes in order to minimize the effect of dust extinction. We find that (i) the distribution of the intrinsic broad-line Halpha/Hbeta ratio can be well described by log-Gaussian, with a peak at Halpha/Hbeta=3.06 and a standard deviation of about 0.03 dex only; (ii) the Balmer decrement does not correlate with AGN properties such as luminosity, accretion rate, and continuum slope, etc.; (iii) on average, the Balmer decrements are found to be only slightly larger in radio-loud sources (3.37) and sources having double-peaked emission-line profiles (3.27) compared to the rest of the sample. We therefore suggest that the broad-line Halpha/Hbeta ratio can be used as a good indicator for dust extinction in the AGN broad-line region; this is especially true for radio-quiet AGN with regular emission-line profiles, which constitute the vast majority of the AGN population.Comment: To appear in MNRAS. The data and the fitted parameters for the decomposed spectral components (continuum, FeII and other emission lines) of the 446 blue AGNs are available at http://staff.ustc.edu.cn/~xbdong/Data_Release/blueAGN_DR4