The best place to be a veteran(?): an examination of the current veteran experience within the United Kingdom.

With the recent North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) publication reviewing veterans' experiences across the member states, there is a need to examine the veteran perspective within the United Kingdom (UK). A unique relationship between the four individual nations that constitute the UK has contributed to a historically and culturally significant perception of the British Armed Forces. The emerging interest within the Veterans Studies field has led to more insights into the post-transition journey for veterans; however, there remains a gap within the literature examining the current veteran experience within the UK. This article addresses this gap by giving an overview of the cultural and historical context whilst also providing a current view of the UK veteran community. The definition of a veteran within the UK context is discussed, including the comparison between the UK definition and other NATO member states. The structure of the British Armed Forces is explored. The challenges that UK veterans can experience are given, whilst providing an overview of the current support systems in place. Public perception within the UK is discussed, with an examination of the role of the media. Future challenges are discussed, with further implications and areas for further research suggested

Gaelic Learners in the Primary School (GLPS) in Argyll & Bute, East Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Perth & Kinross and Stirling : Evaluation Report

For many years individual primary school teachers have no doubt sought to provide their pupils with a brief initial introduction to Gaelic language and culture. However, as a planned, systematic policy development across schools, backed by local authority and national support, GLPS (Gaelic learners in the primary school) has only come into being in the past three years. Thus far it has been taken up in a small number of local authorities, including the five which have commissioned the present evaluation (Argyll & Bute, East Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Perth & Kinross, Stirling), but it is attracting interest in a number of others

Partners in Excellence : Evaluation Report

This is the final report on the 'Partners in Excellence' initiative, which was funded by the Scottish government, and aimed at increasing motivation for language learning in the upper secondary school, using a variety of stimulants including the use of new technologies. The evaluation draws together the findings from four previous interim reviews, focussing on student and teacher perceptions of the Partners in Excellence initiative

"He messaged me the other night and said you are my saviour" : An interpretative phenomenological analysis of intimate partners’ roles in supporting Veterans with mental health difficulties

Introduction: The limited research base regarding Veteran welfare has emphasized the adverse psychosocial aspects of being the intimate partner of a Veteran struggling with mental health difficulties. Despite this, previous research has identified that remaining in a romantic relationship can be a protective factor against mental health difficulties. This study aims to explore intimate partners’ views of the role they play in supporting Veterans with mental health difficulties and the personal meanings they associate with this role. Methods: Six female partners of male Veterans were recruited using purposive sampling. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured one-on-one interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of partners of Veterans living with mental health difficulties. Results: Three superordinate themes were identified: 1) the multi-faceted nature of support, 2) vicarious psychosocial consequences of the caring role, and 3) reconstruction of a Veteran’s identity after transition. Discussion: Intimate partners of Veterans described how they supported Veterans experiencing mental health difficulties, as well as detailing the challenges they faced. Future research topics are considered, and recommendations for further support for intimate partners are outlined

A Candidate Dual QSO at Cosmic Noon

We report the discovery of a candidate dual QSO at z=1.889, a redshift that is in the era known as "cosmic noon" where most of the Universe's black hole and stellar mass growth occurred. The source was identified in Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/IR images of a dust-reddened QSO that showed two closely-separated point sources at a projected distance of 0.26", or 2.2 kpc. This red QSO was targeted for imaging to explore whether red QSOs are hosted by merging galaxies. We subsequently obtained a spatially-resolved STIS spectrum of the system, covering the visible spectral range, and verifying the presence of two distinct QSO components. We also obtained high-resolution radio continuum observations with the VLBA at 1.4 GHz (21-cm L band) and found two sources coincident with the optical positions. The sources have similar black hole masses, bolometric luminosities, and radio loudness parameters. However, their colors and reddenings differ significantly. The redder QSO has a higher Eddington ratio, consistent with previous findings. We consider the possibility of gravitational lensing and and find that it would require extreme and unlikely conditions. If confirmed as a bona-fide dual QSO, this system would link dust-reddening to galaxy and supermassive black hole mergers, opening up a new population in which to search for samples of dual AGN.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

An investigation of mismatch negativity in current and ex-cannabis users using a feature controlled method

Abstract presented at the 23rd Australasian Society for Psychophysiology Conference, 20-22 Nov 2013, Wollongong, Australi

Young Stellar Objects in the Gould Belt

We present the full catalog of Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) identified in the 18 molecular clouds surveyed by the Spitzer Space Telescope "cores to disks" (c2d) and "Gould Belt" (GB) Legacy surveys. Using standard techniques developed by the c2d project, we identify 3239 candidate YSOs in the 18 clouds, 2966 of which survive visual inspection and form our final catalog of YSOs in the Gould Belt. We compile extinction corrected SEDs for all 2966 YSOs and calculate and tabulate the infrared spectral index, bolometric luminosity, and bolometric temperature for each object. We find that 326 (11%), 210 (7%), 1248 (42%), and 1182 (40%) are classified as Class 0+I, Flat-spectrum, Class II, and Class III, respectively, and show that the Class III sample suffers from an overall contamination rate by background AGB stars between 25% and 90%. Adopting standard assumptions, we derive durations of 0.40-0.78 Myr for Class 0+I YSOs and 0.26-0.50 Myr for Flat-spectrum YSOs, where the ranges encompass uncertainties in the adopted assumptions. Including information from (sub)millimeter wavelengths, one-third of the Class 0+I sample is classified as Class 0, leading to durations of 0.13-0.26 Myr (Class 0) and 0.27-0.52 Myr (Class I). We revisit infrared color-color diagrams used in the literature to classify YSOs and propose minor revisions to classification boundaries in these diagrams. Finally, we show that the bolometric temperature is a poor discriminator between Class II and Class III YSOs.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS. 29 pages, 11 figures, 14 tables, 4 appendices. Full versions of data tables (to be published in machine-readable format by ApJS) available at the end of the latex source cod

Identification and characterization of a large source of primary mesenchymal stem cells tightly adhered to bone surfaces of human vertebral body marrow cavities

Background: Therapeutic allogeneic mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are currently in clinical trials to evaluate their effectiveness in treating many different disease indications. Eventual commercialization for broad distribution will require further improvements in manufacturing processes to economically manufacture MSCs at scales sufficient to satisfy projected demands. A key contributor to the present high cost of goods sold for MSC manufacturing is the need to create master cell banks from multiple donors, which leads to variability in large-scale manufacturing runs. Therefore, the availability of large single donor depots of primary MSCs would greatly benefit the cell therapy market by reducing costs associated with manufacturing. Methods: We have discovered that an abundant population of cells possessing all the hallmarks of MSCs is tightly associated with the vertebral body (VB) bone matrix and only liberated by proteolytic digestion. Here we demonstrate that these vertebral bone-adherent (vBA) MSCs possess all the International Society of Cell and Gene Therapy-defined characteristics (e.g., plastic adherence, surface marker expression and trilineage differentiation) of MSCs, and we have therefore termed them vBA-MSCs to distinguish this population from loosely associated MSCs recovered through aspiration or rinsing of the bone marrow compartment. Results: Pilot banking and expansion were performed with vBA-MSCs obtained from 3 deceased donors, and it was demonstrated that bank sizes averaging 2.9 × 108 ± 1.35 × 108 vBA-MSCs at passage 1 were obtainable from only 5 g of digested VB bone fragments. Each bank of cells demonstrated robust proliferation through a total of 9 passages, without significant reduction in population doubling times. The theoretical total cell yield from the entire amount of bone fragments (approximately 300 g) from each donor with limited expansion through 4 passages is 100 trillion (1 × 1014) vBA-MSCs, equating to over 105 doses at 10 × 106 cells/kg for an average 70-kg recipient. Discussion: Thus, we have established a novel and plentiful source of MSCs that will benefit the cell therapy market by overcoming manufacturing and regulatory inefficiencies due to donor-to-donor variability

A combined transmission spectrum of the Earth-sized exoplanets TRAPPIST-1 b and c

Three Earth-sized exoplanets were recently discovered close to the habitable zone of the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. The nature of these planets has yet to be determined, since their masses remain unmeasured and no observational constraint is available for the planetary population surrounding ultracool dwarfs, of which the TRAPPIST-1 planets are the first transiting example. Theoretical predictions span the entire atmospheric range from depleted to extended hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. Here, we report a space-based measurement of the combined transmission spectrum of the two inner planets made possible by a favorable alignment resulting in their simultaneous transits on 04 May 2016. The lack of features in the combined spectrum rules out cloud-free hydrogen-dominated atmospheres for each planet at 10-$\sigma$ levels; TRAPPIST-1 b and c are hence unlikely to harbor an extended gas envelope as they lie in a region of parameter space where high-altitude cloud/haze formation is not expected to be significant for hydrogen-dominated atmospheres. Many denser atmospheres remain consistent with the featureless transmission spectrum---from a cloud-free water vapour atmosphere to a Venus-like atmosphere.Comment: Early release to inform further the upcoming review of HST's Cycle 24 proposal