The Milky Way's stellar halo - lumpy or triaxial?

We present minimum chi-squared fits of power law and Hernquist density profiles to F-turnoff stars in eight 2.5 deg wide stripes of SDSS data: five in the North Galactic Cap and three in the South Galactic cap. Portions of the stellar Galactic halo that are known to contain large streams of tidal debris or other lumpy structure, or that may include significant contamination from the thick disk, are avoided. The data strongly favor a model that is not symmetric about the Galaxy's axis of rotation. If included as a free parameter, the best fit to the center of the spheroid is surprisingly approx 3 kpc from the Galactic center in the direction of the Sun's motion. The model fits favor a low value of the density of halo stars at the solar position. The alternative to a non-axisymmetric stellar distribution is that our fits are contaminated by previously unidentified lumpy substructure.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figs, to appear in proceedings of conference "Physics at the end of the Galactic Cosmic Ray Spectrum", Journal of Physics: Conf. series, eds. G. Thomson and P. Sokolsk

An Analysis of A Narrative Therapy Group Work Model for Psychosis

The purpose of this research project was to explore how individuals with psychosis and schizophrenia benefit through participation in a narrative group therapy intervention. Current treatment options for individuals with psychosis and schizophrenia are focused on anti-psychotic medication as a first response to treatment, which has significant negative side-effects for some. Along with medication, a belief exists that individuals with psychosis and schizophrenia lack insight, placing even further dependence on medications and deterring a focus on insight-based therapies. The use of insight-based narrative therapies for individuals with psychosis within a group format is under-researched and lacks discussion in the literature. This qualitative study implemented a secondary data analysis of data collected between November, 2014 and October, 2015 from a current narrative therapy group work program for individuals with psychosis. Using grounded theory, the following two themes were identified: connection and barriers to wellness, each of which had multiple subthemes. The findings of this study show group process as an effective form of intervention, resulting in cohesion, catharsis, and insight. The results of this study demonstrate that individuals with psychosis are able to participate in insight-based narrative therapy and benefit from a group format. Implications for clinical practice and future research are also discussed

An Analysis of A Narrative Therapy Group Work Model for Psychosis

The purpose of this research project was to explore how individuals with psychosis and schizophrenia benefit through participation in a narrative group therapy intervention. Current treatment options for individuals with psychosis and schizophrenia are focused on anti-psychotic medication as a first response to treatment, which has significant negative side-effects for some. Along with medication, a belief exists that individuals with psychosis and schizophrenia lack insight, placing even further dependence on medications and deterring a focus on insight-based therapies. The use of insight-based narrative therapies for individuals with psychosis within a group format is under-researched and lacks discussion in the literature. This qualitative study implemented a secondary data analysis of data collected between November, 2014 and October, 2015 from a current narrative therapy group work program for individuals with psychosis. Using grounded theory, the following two themes were identified: connection and barriers to wellness, each of which had multiple subthemes. The findings of this study show group process as an effective form of intervention, resulting in cohesion, catharsis, and insight. The results of this study demonstrate that individuals with psychosis are able to participate in insight-based narrative therapy and benefit from a group format. Implications for clinical practice and future research are also discussed

The Recognition of Unusual Objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Color System

We present 5 filter photometry of 21 carbon stars, 15 asteroids, 15 cataclysmic variables, 6 metal-poor stars, 5 Cepheids, 1775 field stars, blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars and RR Lyrae stars in the globular clusters M 15 and M 2, two primary standards, and 19 secondary standards. The photometry was carried out using a filter set identical to that which will be used for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that carbon stars, CVs, R-type, J-type, and V-type asteroids, BHB stars, and RR Lyr stars should be identifiable on the basis of SDSS photometry alone, while Cepheids, metal-poor stars, and many types of asteroids are indistinguishable from the stellar locus of field stars.Comment: 44 pages, 13 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, vol. 110, November 1998. Uses AAS Latex style file, version 4.

Retrospective Evaluation of Clinical Experience With Intravenous Ascorbic Acid in Patients With Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Intravenous ascorbic acid (IV AA) has been used extensively in cancer patients throughout the United States. Currently, there are limited data on the safety and clinical effects of IV AA. The purpose of this study was to expand the current literature using a retrospective analysis of adverse events and symptomatic changes of IV AA in a large sample of cancer patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all patients receiving IV AA for cancer at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital over a 7-year period. We assessed all reports of adverse events, laboratory findings, and hospital or emergency department admissions. We also reviewed quality-of-life data, including fatigue, nausea, pain, appetite, and mood. RESULTS: There were 86 patients who received a total of 3034 doses of IV AA ranging from 50 to 150g. In all, 32 patients received only ascorbic acid as part of their cancer management (1197 doses), whereas 54 patients received ascorbic acid in conjunction with chemotherapy (1837 doses). The most common adverse events related to ascorbic acid were temporary nausea and discomfort at the injection site. All events reported in the ascorbic acid alone group were associated with less than 3% of the total number of infusions. Patients, overall, reported improvements in fatigue, pain, and mood while receiving ascorbic acid. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this retrospective analysis support the growing evidence that IV AA is generally safe and well tolerated in patients with cancer, and may be useful in symptom management and improving quality of life

New Models for a Triaxial Milky Way Spheroid and Effect on the Microlensing Optical Depth to the Large Magellanic Cloud

We obtain models for a triaxial Milky Way spheroid based on data by Newberg and Yanny. The best fits to the data occur for a spheroid center that is shifted by 3kpc from the Galactic Center. We investigate effects of the triaxiality on the microlensing optical depth to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The optical depth can be used to ascertain the number of Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs); a larger spheroid contribution would imply fewer Halo MACHOs. On the one hand, the triaxiality gives rise to more spheroid mass along the line of sight between us and the LMC and thus a larger optical depth. However, shifting the spheroid center leads to an effect that goes in the other direction: the best fit to the spheroid center is_away_ from the line of sight to the LMC. As a consequence, these two effects tend to cancel so that the change in optical depth due to the Newberg/Yanny triaxial halo is at most 50%. After subtracting the spheroid contribution in the four models we consider, the MACHO contribution (central value) to the mass of the Galactic Halo varies from \~(8-20)% if all excess lensing events observed by the MACHO collaboration are assumed to be due to MACHOs. Here the maximum is due to the original MACHO collaboration results and the minimum is consistent with 0% at the 1 sigma error level in the data.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures. v2: minor revisions. v3: expanded discussion of the local spheroid density and minor revisions to match version published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (JCAP

Detection of a population gradient in the Sagittarius Stream

We present a quantitative comparison between the Horizontal Branch morphology in the core of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr) and in a wide field sampling a portion of its tidal stream (Sgr Stream), located tens of kpc away from the center of the parent galaxy. We find that the Blue Horizontal Branch (BHB) stars in that part of the Stream are five times more abundant than in the Sgr core, relative to Red Clump stars. The difference in the ratio of BHB to RC stars between the two fields is significant at the 4.8 sigma level. This indicates that the old and metal-poor population of Sgr was preferentially stripped from the galaxy in past peri-Galactic passages with respect to the intermediate-age metal rich population that presently dominates the bound core of Sgr, probably due to a strong radial gradient that was settled within the galaxy before its disruption. The technique adopted in the present study allows to trace population gradients along the whole extension of the Stream.Comment: 4 pages, 3 .ps figures (fig. 1 at low resolution); Accepted for publication by A&A Letter