A Group of Red, Ly-alpha Emitting, High Redshift Galaxies

We have discovered two new high redshift (z=2.38) galaxies, near the previously known z=2.38 galaxy 2139-4434 B1 (Francis et al. 1996). All three galaxies are strong Ly-alpha emitters, and have much redder continuum colors (I-K about 5) than other optically-selected high redshift galaxies. We hypothesize that these three galaxies are QSO IIs; radio-quiet counterparts of high redshift radio galaxies, containing concealed QSO nuclei. The red colors are most easily modelled by an old (> 0.5 Gyr), massive (> 10E11 solar masses) stellar population. If true, this implies that at least one galaxy cluster of mass much greater than 3E11 solar masses had collapsed before redshift five.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, uses aaspp4 style file. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter

Marriage, religion and human flourishing: how sustainable is the classic Durkheim thesis in contemporary Europe?

This paper draws on the three waves of the European Values Survey across five countries (Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Spain and Sweden) to investigate the relationship between indicators of positive psychology (conceptualised as feelings of happiness and satisfaction with life), religiosity (conceptualised as self-assigned religious affiliation and self-reported religious attendance) and marital status. The results demonstrate that religiosity is, in general, positively correlated with both indicators of positive psychology. Further, across all waves and all countries, the pattern emerges that those respondents who are married are likely to report higher levels of happiness and greater satisfaction in life. These data provide contemporary support for the classic Durkheim thesis linking the two institutions of marriage and religion with human flourishing

The spiritual revolution and suicidal ideation: an empirical enquiry among 13- to 15-year-old adolescents in England and Wales

The association between conventional religiosity and suicide inhibition has been well explored and documented since the pioneering work of Durkheim. Commentators like Heelas and Woodhead point to ways in which conventional religiosity is giving way in England and Wales to a range of alternative spiritualities, including renewed interest in paranormal phenomena. Taking a sample of 3095 13- to 15-year-old adolescents, the present study examines the association between suicidal ideation and both conventional religiosity and paranormal beliefs, after controlling for individual differences in sex, age and personality (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism). The data demonstrate that, while conventional religiosity is slightly associated with lower levels of suicidal ideation, paranormal beliefs are strongly associated with higher levels of suicidal ideation

Seasonal reproduction in a fluctuating energy environment: Insolation-driven synchronized broadcast spawning in corals

*Background/Question/Methods:* Colonies of spawning corals reproduce in mass-spawning events, in which polyps within each colony release sperm and eggs for fertilization in the water column, with fertilization occurring only between gametes from different colonies. Participating colonies synchronize their gamete release to a window of a few hours once a year (for the species Acropora digitifera we study experimentally). This remarkable synchrony is essential for successful coral reproduction and thus, maintenance of the coral reef ecosystem that is currently under threat from local and global environmental effects such as pollution, global warming and ocean acidification. The mechanisms determining this tight synchrony in reproduction are not well understood, although several influences have been hypothesized and studied including lunar phase, solar insolation, and influences of temperature and tides. Moreover, most corals are in a symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae (Symbiodinium spp.) that live within the host tissue. Experiments supported by detailed bioenergetic modeling of the coral-algae symbiosis have shown that corals receive >90% of their energy needs from these symbionts. We develop a bioenergetic integrate-and-fire model in order to investigate whether annual insolation rhythms can entrain the gametogenetic cycles that produce mature gametes to the appropriate spawning season, since photosynthate is their primary source of energy. We solve the integrate-and-fire bioenergetic model numerically using the Fokker-Planck equation and use analytical tools such as rotation number to study entrainment.

*Results/Conclusions:* In the presence of short-term fluctuations in the energy input, our model shows that a feedback regulatory mechanism is required to achieve coherence of spawning times to within one lunar cycle, in order for subsequent cues such as lunar and diurnal light cycles to unambiguously determine the “correct” night of spawning. Entrainment to the annual insolation cycle is by itself not sufficient to produce the observed coherence in spawning. The feedback mechanism can also provide robustness against population heterogeneity due to genetic and environmental effects. We also discuss how such bioenergetic, stochastic, integrate-and-fire models are also more generally applicable: for example to aquatic insect emergence, synchrony in cell division and masting in trees

Financial globalization, governance, and the evolution of the home bias

Standard portfolio theories of the home bias are disconnected from corporate finance theories of insider ownership. We merge the two into what we call the optimal ownership theory of the home bias. The theory has the following components. In countries with poor governance, it is optimal for insiders to own large stakes in corporations and for large shareholders to monitor insiders. Foreign portfolio investors will exhibit a large home bias against such countries because their investment is limited by the shares held by insiders (the "direct effect" of poor governance) and domestic monitoring shareholders ("the indirect effect").> ; Foreigners can also enter as foreign direct investors; if they are from countries with good governance, they have a comparative advantage as insider monitors in countries with poor governance, so that the relative importance of foreign direct investment in total foreign equity investment is negatively related to the quality of governance. Using two datasets, we find strong evidence that the theory can help explain the evolution of the home bias. Using country-level U.S. data, we find that on average the home bias of U.S. investors towards the 46 countries with the largest equity markets did not fall over the past decade, but it decreased the most towards countries in which the ownership by corporate insiders decreased, and the importance of foreign direct investment fell in countries in which ownership by corporate insiders fell. Using firm-level data for Korea, we find evidence of the additional indirect effect of poor governance on portfolio equity investment by foreign investors.Investments, Foreign ; Globalization

The Reddest DR3 SDSS/XMM Quasars

We have cross-correlated the SDSS DR3 Schneider et al. (2005) quasar catalog with the XMM-Newton archive. Color and redshift selections (g - r > 0.5 and 0.9 z < 2.1) result in a sample of 17 red, moderate redshift quasars. The redshift selection minimizes possible contamination due to host galaxy emission and Lyalpha forest absorption. Both optical and X-ray information are required to distinguish between the two likely remaining causes of the red colors: 1) dust-reddening and 2) an intrinsically red continuum. We find that 7 of 17 quasars can be classified as probable `intrinsically red' objects. These 7 quasars have unusually broad MgII emission lines (=10,500 km s^{-1}), moderately flat, but unabsorbed X-ray spectra =1.66+/-0.08), and low accretion rates (mdot/mdot_{Edd}} ~ 0.01). We suggest low accretion rates as a possible physical explanation for quasars with intrinsically red optical continua. We find that 8 of 17 quasars can be classified as dust-reddened. Three of these have upper-limits on the absorption column from X-ray spectral fits of N_H = 3-13 x 10^{22} cm^2, while the other five quasars must be absorbed by at least N_H = 10^{23} cm^2 in order to be consistent with a comparably selected alpha_{ox}-l_{uv} distribution. Two objects in the sample are unclassified.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

On the Gas Surrounding High Redshift Galaxy Clusters

Francis & Hewett (1993) identified two 10-Mpc scale regions of the high redshift universe that were seemingly very overdense in neutral hydrogen. Subsequent observations showed that at least one of these gas-rich regions enveloped a cluster of galaxies at redshift 2.38. We present improved observations of the three background QSOs with sightlines passing within a few Mpc of this cluster of galaxies. All three QSOs show strong neutral hydrogen absorption at the cluster redshift, suggesting that this cluster (and perhaps all high redshift clusters) may be surrounded by a ~5 Mpc scale region containing ~ 10^12 solar masses of neutral gas. If most high redshift clusters are surrounded by such regions, we show that the gas must be in the form of many small ( 0.03 cm^-3) clouds, each of mass < 10^6 solar masses. These clouds are themselves probably gathered into > 20 kpc sized clumps, which may be galaxy halos or protogalaxies. If this gas exists, it will be partially photoionised by the UV background. We predict the diffuse Ly-alpha flux from this photoionisation, and place observational limits on its intensity.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS

GROWTH AND YIELD TRAITS OF GROUNDNUT(ARACHIS HYPOGAEA) LINES TREATED WITH HYDROGEN PEROXIDE

The response of some growth and yield traits of four&nbsp; groundnut cultivars, Ms 54-76, ICGV-Sm-42, RmP 12 and Samnut 21 treated with hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours prior to planting was studied using seed treatmentof 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2% and 3%of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The treated seeds were planted in a split plot experimental designing a completely randomised design (CRD) using three replications in University of Calabar, Nigeria. Results showed that more seedlings of Ms 54-76, ICGV-Sm-42 and RmP 12 were established than Samnut 21 at fourteen days after planting. There was a similar variation in the number of days to 50% flowering, number of pods per plant, plant height, number of leaves, number of branches, and weight of pods per plant, shelling percentage and seed weight. The H2O2 incited increase in the seed germination, plant height and in seeds weight from 8 weeks after planting upwards. Generally, ICGV-Sm-42 had the most luxuriant growth and superior yield of the four varieties, followed by Sm-54-76 and RmP 12.ICGV-Sm-42 had the highest response to seed treatment with hydrogen peroxid

A pilot study of the S-MAP (Solutions for Medications Adherence Problems) intervention for older adults prescribed polypharmacy in primary care: Study protocol

Background: Adhering to multiple medications as prescribed is challenging for older patients (aged ≥ 65 years) and a difficult behaviour to improve. Previous interventions designed to address this have been largely complex in nature but have shown limited effectiveness and have rarely used theory in their design. It has been recognised that theory ('a systematic way of understanding events or situations') can guide intervention development and help researchers better understand how complex adherence interventions work. This pilot study aims to test a novel community pharmacy-based intervention that has been systematically developed using the Theoretical Domains Framework (12-domain version) of behaviour change. Methods: As part of a non-randomised pilot study, pharmacists in 12 community pharmacies across Northern Ireland (n = 6) and London, England (n = 6), will be trained to deliver the intervention to older patients who are prescribed ≥ 4 regular medicines and are non-adherent (self-reported). Ten patients will be recruited per pharmacy (n = 120) and offered up to four tailored one-to-one sessions, in the pharmacy or via telephone depending on their adherence, over a 3-4-month period. Guided by an electronic application (app) on iPads, the intervention content will be tailored to each patient's underlying reasons for non-adherence and mapped to the most appropriate solutions using established behaviour change techniques. This study will assess the feasibility of collecting data on the primary outcome of medication adherence (self-report and dispensing data) and secondary outcomes (health-related quality of life and unplanned hospitalisations). An embedded process evaluation will assess training fidelity for pharmacy staff, intervention fidelity, acceptability to patients and pharmacists and the intervention's mechanism of action. Process evaluation data will include audio-recordings of training workshops, intervention sessions, feedback interviews and patient surveys. Analysis will be largely descriptive. Discussion: Using pre-defined progression criteria, the findings from this pilot study will guide the decision whether to proceed to a cluster randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of the S-MAP intervention in comparison to usual care in community pharmacies. The study will also explore how the intervention components may work to bring about change in older patients' adherence behaviour and guide further refinement of the intervention and study procedures. Trial registration: This study is registered at ISRCTN: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN7383153