The effect of an internet option and single-sided printing format to increase the response rate to a population-based study : a randomized controlled trial

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the Institute of Applied Health Sciences (IAHS) at the University of Aberdeen for funding the PhD studentship of EF. Furthermore, we would like to thank everyone who was involved in the study, including Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie (Director of Public Health, NHS Grampian), John Lemon (University of Aberdeen), Dr. Fiona Garton (University of Aberdeen) and the Aberdeen Service User Group. Lastly, we would like to acknowledge all data entry clerks (Maxx Livingstone, Rory Macfarlane, Georgia Mannion-Krase and Hazel Reilly) and participants of the study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Strengthening impact assessment: a call for integration and focus

We suggest that the impact assessment community has lost its way based on our observation that impact assessment is under attack because of a perceived lack of efficiency. Specifically, we contend that the proliferation of different impact assessment types creates separate silos of expertise and feeds arguments for not only a lack of efficiency but also a lack of effectiveness of the process through excessive specialisation and a lack of interdisciplinary practice. We propose that the solution is a return to the basics of impact assessment with a call for increased integration around the goal of sustainable development and focus through better scoping. We rehearse and rebut counter arguments covering silo-based expertise, advocacy, democracy, sustainability understanding and communication. We call on the impact assessment community to rise to the challenge of increasing integration and focus, and to engage in the debate about the means of strengthening impact assessment

A Limit on the Polarized Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background at Subdegree Angular Scales

A ground-based polarimeter, PIQUE, operating at 90 GHz has set a new limit on the magnitude of any polarized anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background. The combination of the scan strategy and full width half maximum beam of 0.235 degrees gives broad window functions with average multipoles, l = 211+294-146 and l = 212+229-135 for the E- and B-mode window functions, respectively. A joint likelihood analysis yields simultaneous 95% confidence level flat band power limits of 14 and 13 microkelvin on the amplitudes of the E- and B-mode angular power spectra, respectively. Assuming no B-modes, a 95% confidence limit of 10 microkelvin is placed on the amplitude of the E-mode angular power spectrum alone.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letter

Asteroseismological Observations of the Central Star of the Planetary Nebula NGC 1501

We report on a global CCD time-series photometric campaign to decode the pulsations of the nucleus of the planetary nebula NGC1501. The star is hot and hydrogen-deficient, similar to the pre-white-dwarf PG 1159 stars. NGC1501 shows pulsational brightness variations of a few percent with periods ranging from 19 to 87 minutes. The variations are very complex, suggesting a pulsation spectrum that requires a long unbroken time series to resolve. Our CCD photometry of the star covers a two-week period in 1991 November, and used a global network of observatories. We obtained nearly continuous coverage over an interval of one week in the middle of the run. We have identified 10 pulsation periods, ranging from 5235 s down to 1154 s. We find strong evidence that the modes are indeed nonradial g-modes. The ratios of the frequencies of the largest-amplitude modes agree with those expected for modes that are trapped by a density discontinuity in the outer layers. We offer a model for the pulsation spectrum that includes a common period spacing of 22.3 s and a rotation period of 1.17 days; the period spacing allows us to assign a seismological mass of 0.55+/-0.03 Msun.Comment: 12 pages, AASTEX, 7 tables, 6 EPS figures, to appear in AJ, 12/96 Corrected version repairs table formatting and adds missing Table

Fast, exact CMB power spectrum estimation for a certain class of observational strategies

We describe a class of observational strategies for probing the anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) where the instrument scans on rings which can be combined into an n-torus, the {\em ring torus}. This class has the remarkable property that it allows exact maximum likelihood power spectrum estimation in of order $N^2$ operations (if the size of the data set is $N$) under circumstances which would previously have made this analysis intractable: correlated receiver noise, arbitrary asymmetric beam shapes and far side lobes, non-uniform distribution of integration time on the sky and partial sky coverage. This ease of computation gives us an important theoretical tool for understanding the impact of instrumental effects on CMB observables and hence for the design and analysis of the CMB observations of the future. There are members of this class which closely approximate the MAP and Planck satellite missions. We present a numerical example where we apply our ring torus methods to a simulated data set from a CMB mission covering a 20 degree patch on the sky to compute the maximum likelihood estimate of the power spectrum $C_\ell$ with unprecedented efficiency.Comment: RevTeX, 14 pages, 5 figures. A full resolution version of Figure 1 and additional materials are at http://feynman.princeton.edu/~bwandelt/RT

A cohort study of influences, health outcomes and costs of patients' health-seeking behaviour for minor ailments from primary and emergency care settings

To compare health-related and cost-related outcomes of consultations for symptoms suggestive of minor ailments in emergency departments (EDs), general practices and community pharmacies

Improving the Prospects for Detecting Extrasolar Planets in Gravitational Microlensing in 2002

Gravitational microlensing events of high magnification have been shown to be promising targets for detecting extrasolar planets. However, only a few events of high magnification have been found using conventional survey techniques. Here we demonstrate that high magnification events can be readily found in microlensing surveys using a strategy that combines high frequency sampling of target fields with online difference imaging analysis. We present 10 microlensing events with peak magnifications greater than 40 that were detected in real-time towards the Galactic Bulge during 2001 by MOA. We show that Earth mass planets can be detected in future events such as these through intensive follow-up observations around the event peaks. We report this result with urgency as a similar number of such events are expected in 2002.Comment: 11 pages, 3 embedded ps figures including 2 colour, revised version accepted by MNRA

Cosmological predictions from the Misner brane

Within the spirit of five-dimensional gravity in the Randall-Sundrum scenario, in this paper we consider cosmological and gravitational implications induced by forcing the spacetime metric to satisfy a Misner-like symmetry. We first show that in the resulting Misner-brane framework the Friedmann metric for a radiation dominated flat universe and the Schwarzschild or anti-de Sitter black holes metrics are exact solutions on the branes, but the model cannot accommodate any inflationary solution. The horizon and flatness problems can however be solved in Misner-brane cosmology by causal and noncausal communications through the extra dimension between distant regions which are outside the horizon. Based on a semiclassical approximation to the path-integral approach, we have calculated the quantum state of the Misner-brane universe and the quantum perturbations induced on its metric by brane propagation along the fifth direction. We have then considered testable predictions from our model. These include a scale-invariant spectrum of density perturbations whose amplitude can be naturally accommodated to the required value 10$^{-5}-10^{-6}$, and a power spectrum of CMB anisotropies whose acoustic peaks are at the same sky angles as those predicted by inflationary models, but having much smaller secondary-peak intensities. These predictions seem to be compatible with COBE and recent Boomerang and Maxima measurementsComment: 16 pages, RevTe

A Spin Modulated Telescope to Make Two Dimensional CMB Maps

We describe the HEMT Advanced Cosmic Microwave Explorer (HACME), a balloon borne experiment designed to measure sub-degree scale Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy over hundreds of square degrees, using a unique two dimensional scanning strategy. A spinning flat mirror that is canted relative to its spin axis modulates the direction of beam response in a nearly elliptical path on the sky. The experiment was successfully flown in February of 1996, achieving near laboratory performance for several hours at float altitude. A map free of instrumental systematic effects is produced for a 3.5 hour observation of 630 square degrees, resulting in a flat band power upper limit of (l(l+1)C_l/2 pi)^0.5 < 77 microK at l = 38 (95% confidence). The experiment design, flight operations and data, including atmospheric effects and noise performance, are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Kinematics of the ring-like nebula SuWt 2

We present the first detailed spatio-kinematical analysis and modelling of the Southern planetary nebula SuWt 2. This object presents a problem for current theories of planetary nebula formation and evolution, as it is not known to contain a central post-main sequence star. Deep narrowband [NII]6584 images reveal the presence of faint bipolar lobes emanating fromthe edges of the nebular ring. Longslit observations of the H-alpha and [NII]6584 emission lines were obtained using EMMI on the 3.6-m ESO-NTT. The spectra reveal the nebular morphology as a bright torus encircling the waist of an extended bipolar structure. By deprojection, the inclination of the ring is found to be 68\degr $\pm$ 2\degr (c.f. ~90\degr for the double A-type binary believed to lie at the centre of the nebula), and the ring expansion velocity is found to be 28 km/s. Our findings are discussed with relation to possible formation scenarios for SuWt 2. Through comparison of the nebular heliocentric systemic velocity, found here to be -25 $\pm$ 5 km/s, and the heliocentric systemic velocity of the double A-type binary, we conclude that neither component of the binary could have been the nebular progenitor. However, we are unable to rule out the presence of a third component to the system, which would have been the nebula progenitor.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRA