Not just old and sick - the 'will to health' in later life

The end of the ‘Golden Age’ of welfare capitalism in the 1970s was the prelude to a period of greater individualisation within societies and was accompanied by an increase in the importance of consumption as a way of organising social relations. During the same period there was also an expansion in the discourses aimed at enhancing the government of the autonomous self. One such discourse operates around what has been termed the ‘will to health’: it suggests that health has become a required goal for individual behaviour and has become synonymous with health itself. The generational groups whose lifecourses were most exposed to these changes are now approaching later life. We explore the extent to which social transformations related to risk, consumption and individualisation are reflected in the construction of later-life identities around health and ageing. We examine how the growth in health-related ‘technologies of the self’ have fostered a distinction between natural and normal ageing, wherein the former is associated with coming to terms with physical decline and the latter associated with maintaining norms of self-care aimed at delaying such decline. Finally, we consider anti-ageing medicine as a developing arena for the construction of later-life identities and discuss the implications of the social changes for researching later life

The Nature of the Low-Metallicity ISM in the Dwarf Galaxy NGC 1569

We are modeling the spectra of dwarf galaxies from infrared to submillimeter wavelengths to understand the nature of the various dust components in low-metallicity environments, which may be comparable to the ISM of galaxies in their early evolutionary state. The overall nature of the dust in these environments appears to differ from those of higher metallicity starbursting systems. Here, we present a study of one of our sample of dwarf galaxies, NGC 1569, which is a nearby, well-studied starbursting dwarf. Using ISOCAM, IRAS, ISOPHOT and SCUBA data with the Desert et al. (1990) model, we find consistency with little contribution from PAHs and Very Small Grains and a relative abundance of bigger colder grains, which dominate the FIR and submillimeter wavelengths. We are compelled to use 4 dust components, adding a very cold dust component, to reproduce the submillimetre excess of our observations.Comment: 4 pages, 4 postscript figures. Proceedings of "Infrared and Submillimeter Astronomy. An International Colloquium to Honor the Memory of Guy Serra" (2002

Giant planets around two intermediate-mass evolved stars and confirmation of the planetary nature of HIP67851 c

Precision radial velocities are required to discover and characterize planets orbiting nearby stars. Optical and near infrared spectra that exhibit many hundreds of absorption lines can allow the m/s precision levels required for such work. However, this means that studies have generally focused on solar-type dwarf stars. After the main-sequence, intermediate-mass stars (former A-F stars) expand and rotate slower than their progenitors, thus thousands of narrow absorption lines appear in the optical region, permitting the search for planetary Doppler signals in the data for these types of stars. We present the discovery of two giant planets around the intermediate-mass evolved star HIP65891 and HIP107773. The best Keplerian fit to the HIP65891 and HIP107773 radial velocities leads to the following orbital parameters: P=1084.5 d; m$_b$sin$i$ = 6.0 M$_{jup}$; $e$=0.13 and P=144.3 d; m$_b$sin$i$ = 2.0 M$_{jup}$; $e$=0.09, respectively. In addition, we confirm the planetary nature of the outer object orbiting the giant star HIP67851. The orbital parameters of HIP67851c are: P=2131.8 d, m$_c$sin$i$ = 6.0 M$_{jup}$ and $e$=0.17. With masses of 2.5 M$_\odot$ and 2.4 M$_\odot$ HIP65891 and HIP107773 are two of the most massive stars known to host planets. Additionally, HIP67851 is one of five giant stars that are known to host a planetary system having a close-in planet ($a <$ 0.7 AU). Based on the evolutionary states of those five stars, we conclude that close-in planets do exist in multiple systems around subgiants and slightly evolved giants stars, but probably they are subsequently destroyed by the stellar envelope during the ascent of the red giant branch phase. As a consequence, planetary systems with close-in objects are not found around horizontal branch stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&

The Only Eye Study (OnES): a qualitative study of surgeon experiences of only eye surgery and recommendations for patient safety

OBJECTIVE: Performing surgery on patients with only one seeing-eye, where complications may result in catastrophic vision loss, presents unique challenges for the ophthalmic care team. There is currently no evidence regarding how surgeons augment their care when treating only eye patients and no guidelines for how these patients should be managed in hospital eye services. This study aimed to explore ophthalmic surgeons' experiences of only eye surgery and perceptions of current practice. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Ten ophthalmic surgeons were asked to relate their experiences and views on performing only eye surgery in indepth, semistructured interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic analysis to identify key themes. SETTING: Hospital eye service. RESULTS: Five key themes emerged relating to surgeons' experiences and perceptions of only eye surgery: (1) differences in approach to consent, (2) strategies for risk reduction, (3) unmet training needs, (4) value of surgical mentor and (5) emotional impact of unsuccessful outcomes. Recommendations for improving the surgical journey for both the patient and the surgeon related primarily to better recognition and understanding of the complexities inherent with only eye surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Outcomes of only eye surgery may be improved through a number of methods, including development of purpose-designed training fellowships, adoption of stress-reducing strategies and enhancement of available support services. The findings identify emerging themes unique to only eye surgery and the need for guidelines on the provision of care for these high-stakes surgical patients

Leptogenesis in the two right-handed neutrino model revisited

We revisit leptogenesis in the minimal non-supersymmetric type I see-saw mechanism with two right-handed (RH) neutrinos, including flavour effects and allowing both RH neutrinos N_1 and N_2 to contribute, rather than just the lightest RH neutrino N_1 that has hitherto been considered. By performing scans over parameter space in terms of the single complex angle z of the orthogonal matrix R, for a range of PMNS parameters, we find that in regions around z \sim \pm \pi/2, for the case of a normal mass hierarchy, the N_2 contribution can dominate the contribution to leptogenesis, allowing the lightest RH neutrino mass to be decreased by about an order of magnitude in these regions, down to M_1 \sim 1.3*10^11 GeV for vanishing initial N_2-abundance, with the numerical results supported by analytic estimates. We show that the regions around z \sim \pm \pi /2 correspond to light sequential dominance, so the new results in this paper may be relevant to unified model building.Comment: 41 pages, 10 figures; v2 matches published version in PR

Turning the Quantum Group Invariant XXZ Spin-Chain Hermitian: A Conjecture on the Invariant Product

This is a continuation of a previous joint work with Robert Weston on the quantum group invariant XXZ spin-chain (math-ph/0703085). The previous results on quasi-Hermiticity of this integrable model are briefly reviewed and then connected with a new construction of an inner product with respect to which the Hamiltonian and the representation of the Temperley-Lieb algebra become Hermitian. The approach is purely algebraic, one starts with the definition of a positive functional over the Temperley-Lieb algebra whose values can be computed graphically. Employing the Gel'fand-Naimark-Segal (GNS) construction for C*-algebras a self-adjoint representation of the Temperley-Lieb algebra is constructed when the deformation parameter q lies in a special section of the unit circle. The main conjecture of the paper is the unitary equivalence of this GNS representation with the representation obtained in the previous paper employing the ideas of PT-symmetry and quasi-Hermiticity. An explicit example is presented.Comment: 12 page

Quantum calculation of vortices in the inner crust of neutron stars

We study, within a quantum mechanical framework based on self-consistent mean field theory, the interaction between a vortex and a nucleus immersed in a sea of free neutrons, a scenario representative of the inner crust of neutron stars. Quantal finite size effects force the vortex core outside the nucleus, influencing vortex pinning in an important way

The Environment for Application Software Integration and Execution (EASIE) version 1.0. Volume 4: System installation and maintenance guide

The Environment for Application Software Integration and Execution (EASIE) provides both a methodology and a set of software utility programs to ease the task of coordinating engineering design and analysis codes. This document provides necessary information for installing the EASIE software on a host computer system. The target host is a DEX VAX running VMS version 4; host dependencies are noted when appropriate. Relevant directories and individual files are identified, and compile/load/execute sequences are specified. In the case of the data management utilities, database management system (DBMS) specific features are described in an effort to assist the maintenance programmer in converting to a new DBMS. The document also describes a sample EASIE program directory structure to guide the program implementer in establishing his/her application dependent environment

Half Cycle Pulse Train Induced State Redistribution of Rydberg Atoms

Population transfer between low lying Rydberg states independent of the initial state is realized using a train of half-cycle pulses with pulse durations much less than the classical orbit period. We demonstrate experimentally the transfer of population from initial states around n=50 down to n<40 as well as up to the continuum. The measured population transfer matches well to a model of the process for 1D atoms.Comment: V2: discussion extended, version accepted for publication in Physical Review