Photolytically generated aerosols in the mesosphere and thermosphere of Titan

Analysis of the Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer (UVIS) stellar and solar occultations at Titan to date include 12 species: N$_{2}$ (nitrogen), CH$_{4}$ (methane), C$_{2}$H$_{2}$ (acetylene), C$_{2}$H$_{4}$ (ethylene), C$_{2}$H$_{6}$ (ethane), C$_{4}$H$_{2}$ (diacetylene), C$_{6}$H$_{6}$ (benzene), C$_{6}$N$_{2}$ (dicyanodiacetylene), C$_{2}$N$_{2}$ (cyanogen), HCN (hydrogen cyanide), HC$_{3}$N (cyanoacetylene), and aerosols distinguished by a structureless continuum extinction (absorption plus scattering) of photons in the EUV. The introduction of aerosol particles, retaining the same refractive index properties as tholin with radius $\sim$125 \AA and using Mie theory, provides a satisfactory fit to the spectra. The derived vertical profile of aerosol density shows distinct structure, implying a reactive generation process reaching altitudes more than 1000 km above the surface. A photochemical model presented here provides a reference basis for examining the chemical and physical processes leading to the distinctive atmospheric opacity at Titan. We find that dicyanodiacetylene is condensable at $\sim$650 km, where the atmospheric temperature minimum is located. This species is the simplest molecule identified to be condensable. Observations are needed to confirm the existence and production rates of dicyanodiacetylene.Comment: A typo in Table 1 was made in the previous version. The corrected tholin abundance is 4.6x10^11. ApJL in press. Will be published on June 1st, or May 21 onlin

Evaluation of the Primary Care Mental Health Specialist role: Final Report

This report details an evaluation to assess the impact of the new primary care mental health specialist (PCMHS) role in Kent and Medway. The evaluation was undertaken by the Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS) at the University of Kent and was conducted June 2013 to December 2014. The evaluation was commissioned by NHS Kent and Medway and supported by Kent and Medway Commissioning Support. The evaluation encompasses six CCG areas across Kent and Medway, with 13 PCMHS employed in these areas (see Table 1-1 for breakdown). The number of posts per CCG is dependent on the amount CCGs invest (roughly equating to population size), rather than prevalence of illness. The PCMHS have been seconded from Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) for the duration of the pilot, and are either community psychiatric nurses (CPN) or occupational therapists (OT) by profession. The majority of PCMHS are hosted by a voluntary organisation (mcch); three are hosted by GP practices and two by a community Interest Company, Invicta CIC. The main objectives of the evaluation are: 1. To assess the impact on patients by capturing their experience of the service; 2. To assess the impact by capturing experiences of those delivering the service (i.e., PCMHS); 3. To assess the impact by capturing experiences of other professions who work alongside the service (i.e., mental health professionals in secondary care, GPs); 4. To assess the economic cost of the new service via a unit cost analysis

Bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris--incidence and mortality in the UK: population based cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of and mortality from bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris in the United Kingdom. DESIGN: Retrospective historical cohort study. SETTING: Computerised medical records from the health improvement network, a large population based UK general practice database. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with pemphigus vulgaris and bullous pemphigoid diagnostic codes and age, sex, and practice matched controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incidence and mortality compared with the control population by calendar period, age group, sex, geographical region, and degree of social deprivation. RESULTS: 869 people with bullous pemphigoid and 138 people with pemphigus vulgaris were identified. The median age at presentation for bullous pemphigoid was 80 (range 23-102) years, and 534 (61%) patients were female. The median age at presentation for pemphigus vulgaris was 71 (21-102) years, and 91 (66%) patients were female. Incidences of bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris were 4.3 (95% confidence interval 4.0 to 4.6) and 0.7 (0.6 to 0.8) per 100 000 person years. The incidence of bullous pemphigoid increased over time; the average yearly increase was 17% (incidence rate ratio=1.2, 95% confidence interval 1.1 to 1.2). An average yearly increase in incidence of pemphigus vulgaris of 11% (incidence rate ratio=1.1, 1.0 to 1.2) occurred. The risk of death for patients with bullous pemphigoid was twice as great as for controls (adjusted hazard ratio=2.3, 95% confidence interval 2.0 to 2.7). For pemphigus vulgaris, the risk of death was three times greater than for controls (adjusted hazard ratio=3.3, 2.2 to 5.2). CONCLUSIONS: Incidences of bullous pemphigoid and pemphigus vulgaris are increasing. The reasons for the changes in incidence are not clearly understood but have implications for identifying causative factors. Both disorders are associated with a high risk of death. Previous estimates may have underestimated the risk of death associated with these diseases

Space Shuttle Propulsion Systems Plume Modeling and Simulation for the Lift-Off Computational Fluid Dynamics Model

This paper details advances being made in the development of Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes numerical simulation tools, models, and methods for the integrated Space Shuttle Vehicle at launch. The conceptual model and modeling approach described includes the development of multiple computational models to appropriately analyze the potential debris transport for critical debris sources at Lift-Off. The conceptual model described herein involves the integration of propulsion analysis for the nozzle/plume flow with the overall 3D vehicle flowfield at Lift-Off. Debris Transport Analyses are being performed using the Shuttle Lift-Off models to assess the risk to the vehicle from Lift-Off debris and appropriately prioritized mitigation of potential debris sources to continue to reduce vehicle risk. These integrated simulations are being used to evaluate plume-induced debris environments where the multi-plume interactions with the launch facility can potentially accelerate debris particles toward the vehicle

Mixed-Grass Prairie Canopy Structure and Spectral Reflectance Vary with Topographic Position

Managers of the nearly 0.5 million ha of public lands in North and South Dakota, USA rely heavily on manual measurements of canopy height in autumn to ensure conservation of grassland structure for wildlife and forage for livestock. However, more comprehensive assessment of vegetation structure could be achieved for mixed-grass prairie by integrating field survey, topographic position (summit, mid and toeslope) and spectral reflectance data. Thus, we examined the variation of mixed-grass prairie structural attributes (canopy leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content) and spectral vegetation indices (VIs) with variation in topographic position at the Grand River National Grassland (GRNG), South Dakota. We conducted the study on a 36,000-ha herbaceous area within the GRNG, where randomly selected plots (1 km2 in size) were geolocated and included summit, mid and toeslope positions. We tested for effects of topographic position on measured vegetation attributes and VIs calculated from Landsat TM and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data collected in July 2010. Leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content were lower at summits than at toeslopes. The simple ratio of Landsat Band 7/Band 1 (SR71) was the VI most highly correlated with canopy standing crop and height at plot and landscape scales. Results suggest field and remote sensing-based grassland assessment techniques could more comprehensively target low structure areas at minimal expense by layering modeled imagery over a landscape stratified into topographic position groups

Mixed-Grass Prairie Canopy Structure and Spectral Reflectance Vary with Topographic Position

Managers of the nearly 0.5 million ha of public lands in North and South Dakota, USA rely heavily on manual measurements of canopy height in autumn to ensure conservation of grassland structure for wildlife and forage for livestock. However, more comprehensive assessment of vegetation structure could be achieved for mixed-grass prairie by integrating field survey, topographic position (summit, mid and toeslope) and spectral reflectance data. Thus, we examined the variation of mixed-grass prairie structural attributes (canopy leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content) and spectral vegetation indices (VIs) with variation in topographic position at the Grand River National Grassland (GRNG), South Dakota. We conducted the study on a 36,000-ha herbaceous area within the GRNG, where randomly selected plots (1 km2 in size) were geolocated and included summit, mid and toeslope positions. We tested for effects of topographic position on measured vegetation attributes and VIs calculated from Landsat TM and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data collected in July 2010. Leaf area, standing crop mass, canopy height, nitrogen, and water content were lower at summits than at toeslopes. The simple ratio of Landsat Band 7/Band 1 (SR71) was the VI most highly correlated with canopy standing crop and height at plot and landscape scales. Results suggest field and remote sensing-based grassland assessment techniques could more comprehensively target low structure areas at minimal expense by layering modeled imagery over a landscape stratified into topographic position groups

Is domestic agricultural production sufficient to meet national food nutrient needs in Brazil?

Acknowledgements: We are grateful for the valuable comments and suggestions made by Dr. James Gerber, as well as by the anonymous reviewers, which enhanced significantly the manuscript. Data Availability: All relevant data are uploaded to the PANGAEA database and publicly accessible via the following URL: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.911574. Funding: J. P. received his doctorate scholarship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). J. P., J. G. and J. O. were funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), in the scope of the Belmont Forum FACCE-JPI 2013 (process 2014/50627-2). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An Improved Method for Estimating the Masses of Stars with Transiting Planets

To determine the physical parameters of a transiting planet and its host star from photometric and spectroscopic analysis, it is essential to independently measure the stellar mass. This is often achieved by the use of evolutionary tracks and isochrones, but the mass result is only as reliable as the models used. The recent paper by Torres et al (2009) showed that accurate values for stellar masses and radii could be obtained from a calibration using T_eff, log g and [Fe/H]. We investigate whether a similarly good calibration can be obtained by substituting log rho - the fundamental parameter measured for the host star of a transiting planet - for log g, and apply this to star-exoplanet systems. We perform a polynomial fit to stellar binary data provided in Torres et al (2009) to obtain the stellar mass and radius as functions of T_eff, log rho and [Fe/H], with uncertainties on the fit produced from a Monte Carlo analysis. We apply the resulting equations to measurements for seventeen SuperWASP host stars, and also demonstrate the application of the calibration in a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis to obtain accurate system parameters where spectroscopic estimates of effective stellar temperature and metallicity are available. We show that the calibration using log rho produces accurate values for the stellar masses and radii; we obtain masses and radii of the SuperWASP stars in good agreement with isochrone analysis results. We ascertain that the mass calibration is robust against uncertainties resulting from poor photometry, although a good estimate of stellar radius requires good-quality transit light curve to determine the duration of ingress and egress.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Is a combination of varenicline and nicotine patch more effective in helping smokers quit than varenicline alone? A randomised controlled trial

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited