105 research outputs found
Cardiff Model Toolkit: Community Guidance For Violence Prevention
More than half of violent crime in the United States is not reported to law enforcement, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That means cities and communities lack a complete understanding of where violence occurs, which limits the ability to develop successful solutions.The Cardiff Violence Prevention Model provides a way for communities to gain a clearer picture about where violence is occurring by combining and mapping both hospital and police data on violence.But more than just an approach to map and understand violence, the Cardiff Model provides a straightforward framework for hospitals, law enforcement agencies, public health agencies, community groups, and others interested in violence prevention to work together and develop collaborative violence prevention strategies
A kinematic study of planetary nebulae in the dwarf irregular galaxy IC10
We present positions, kinematics, and the planetary nebula luminosity
function (PNLF) for 35 planetary nebulae (PNe) in the nearest starburst galaxy
IC10 extending out to 3kpc from the galaxy's centre. We take advantage of the
deep imaging and spectroscopic capabilities provided by the spectrograph FOCAS
on the 8.2m Subaru telescope. The PN velocities were measured through the
slitless-spectroscopy technique, which allows us to explore the kinematics of
IC10 with high precision. Using these velocities, we conclude that there is a
kinematic connection between the HI envelope located around IC10 and the
galaxy's PN population. By assuming that the PNe in the central regions and in
the outskirts have similar ages, our results put strong observational
constraints on the past tidal interactions in the Local Group. This is so
because by dating the PN central stars, we, therefore, infer the epoch of a
major episode of star formation likely linked to the first encounter of the HI
extended envelope with the galaxy. Our deep [OIII] images also allow us to use
the PNLF to estimate a distance modulus of 24.1+/-0.25, which is in agreement
with recent results in the literature based on other techniques.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Critical review of behaviour change techniques applied in intervention studies to improve cooking skills and food skills among adults
BACKGROUND: Cooking and food skills interventions have grown in popularity; however, there is a lack of transparency as to how these interventions were designed, highlighting a need to identify and understand the mechanisms of behavior change so that effective components may be introduced in future work. This study critiques cooking and food skills interventions in relation to their design, behavior change techniques (BCTs), theoretical underpinnings, and outcomes.
METHODS: A 40-item CALO-RE taxonomy was used to examine the components of 59 cooking and food skills interventions identified by two systematic reviews. Studies were coded by three independent coders.
RESULTS: The three most frequently occurring BCTs identified were #1 Provide information on consequences of behavior in general; #21 Provide instruction on how to perform the behavior; and #26 Prompt Practice. Fifty-six interventions reported positive short-term outcomes. Only 14 interventions reported long-term outcomes containing BCTs relating to information provision.
CONCLUSION: This study reviewed cooking and food skills interventions highlighting the most commonly used BCTs, and those associated with long-term positive outcomes for cooking skills and diet. This study indicates the potential for using the BCT CALO-RE taxonomy to inform the design, planning, delivery and evaluation of future interventions
CAST constraints on the axion-electron coupling
In non-hadronic axion models, which have a tree-level axion-electron interaction, the Sun produces a strong axion flux by bremsstrahlung, Compton scattering, and axiorecombination, the "BCA processes." Based on a new calculation of this flux, including for the first time axio-recombination, we derive limits on the axion-electron Yukawa coupling gae and axion-photon interaction strength ga using the CAST phase-I data (vacuum phase). For ma <~ 10 meV/c2 we find ga gae < 8.1 × 10−23 GeV−1 at 95% CL. We stress that a next-generation axion helioscope such as the proposed IAXO could push this sensitivity into a range beyond stellar energy-loss limits and test the hypothesis that white-dwarf cooling is dominated by axion emission
Organic building blocks at inorganic nanomaterial interfaces
This tutorial review presents our perspective on designing organic molecules for the functionalization of inorganic nanomaterial surfaces, through the model of an “anchor-functionality” paradigm. This “anchor-functionality” paradigm is a streamlined design strategy developed from a comprehensive range of materials (e.g., lead halide perovskites, II–VI semiconductors, III–V semiconductors, metal oxides, diamonds, carbon dots, silicon, etc.) and applications (e.g., light-emitting diodes, photovoltaics, lasers, photonic cavities, photocatalysis, fluorescence imaging, photo dynamic therapy, drug delivery, etc.). The structure of this organic interface modifier comprises two key components: anchor groups binding to inorganic surfaces and functional groups that optimize their performance in specific applications. To help readers better understand and utilize this approach, the roles of different anchor groups and different functional groups are discussed and explained through their interactions with inorganic materials and external environments
A Hubble Space Telescope Survey for Resolved Companions of Planetary-Nebula Nuclei
We report results of an HST "snapshot" survey aimed at finding resolved
binary companions of the central stars of Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe).
Using WF/PC and WFPC2, we searched the fields of 113 PNe for stars whose close
proximity to the central star suggests a physical association. We find 10
binary nuclei that are very likely to be physically associated, and another six
that are possible binary associations. By correcting for interstellar
extinction and placing the central stars' companions on the main sequence, we
derive distances to the objects, and thereby significantly increase the number
of PNe with reliable distances.
Comparison of our derived distances with those obtained from various
statistical methods shows that all of the latter have systematically
overestimated the distances, by factors ranging up to a factor of two or more.
We show that this error is most likely due to the fact that the properties of
our PNe with binary nuclei are systematically different from those of PNe used
heretofore to calibrate statistical methods. Specifically, our PNe tend to have
lower surface brightnesses at the same physical radius than the traditional
calibration objects. This difference may arise from a selection effect: the PNe
in our survey are typically nearby, old nebulae, whereas most of the objects
that calibrate statistical techniques are low-latitude,
high-surface-brightness, and more distant nebulae. As a result, the statistical
methods that seem to work well with samples of distant PNe, e.g., those in the
Galactic bulge or external galaxies, may not be applicable to the more diverse
population of local PNe.Comment: 37 text pages, 17 table pages, 9 figures. Accepted by Astronomical
Journal for June 1999 issu
Self-Management education for adults with poorly controlled epILEpsy (SMILE (UK)): a randomised controlled trial protocol
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain
Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,
unless otherwise stated.National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme; reference 09/165/01
Self-management education for adults with poorly controlled epilepsy (SMILE (UK)): statistical, economic and qualitative analysis plan for a randomised controlled trial
BACKGROUND: There is a need to test the effectiveness of new educational interventions for people with poorly controlled epilepsy. The SMILE (self-management education for adults with poorly controlled epilepsy) trial evaluates a complex service intervention that involves a 2-day self-management course with the aim of improving quality of life and clinical outcomes. This article describes the statistical, economic, and qualitative analysis plan for the trial. METHODS AND DESIGN: SMILE is a pragmatic, parallel design, two-arm, multi-centre randomised controlled superiority trial of a group-based interactive course compared with treatment as usual for people who have experienced two or more seizures in the past 12 months. RESULTS: A summary of the objectives and design of the trial are reported as well as the manner in which the data will be summarised and inferentially analysed. This includes the type of modelling that will be employed for each of the primary and secondary outcomes and the methods by which the assumptions of these models will be checked. Strategies are described for handling clustering of outcome data, missing observations, and treatment non-compliance. CONCLUSION: This update to the previously published trial protocol provides a description of the trial analysis which is transparent and specified before any outcome data are available. It also provides guidance to those planning the analysis of similar trials. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN57937389; date assigned: 27 March 2013
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