Transgender Family Transitions: A sibling perspective

As more families are seeking professional help to navigate issues surrounding gender, there is a growing need for clinicians who can assist in the family transition that accompanies an individual’s gender transition process (Coolhart, Ritenour, & Grodzinski, 2018). While family therapy literature is currently expanding to address families with a transgender member, existing psychological thought mostly centers therapeutic focus on the identified transgender individuals and their parents, neglecting the roles and experiences of siblings in this process (Blumer, Green, Knowles, & Williams, 2012). The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of those who had a sibling disclose they are transgender, with particular interest in how the process of disclosure and transition affected the sibling relationship as well as how those experiences may relate to or differ from parent-child relationships. Thirteen cisgender individuals who have a transgender sibling participated in individual, semi-structured Zoom interviews with the principal researcher. Data was recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using “grounded theory” methodology as explained by Auerbach and Silverstein (2003) to produce themes, theoretical constructs, and form a cohesive narrative. Through the analysis, four domains of experiences were identified: affective reactions, individual change processes, dyadic relationship processes, and family system processes. The discussion examines the data and theoretical constructs against existing literature and family systems theory. Recommendations are offered to clinicians and future researchers to facilitate change, provide support, and develop better understanding of the experiences of this population

Capacity and Fairness of Distributed Antenna Systems in Multi-Cell Environments with User Scheduling, Power Control and Imperfect CSI

Distributed antenna systems (DASs) have attractedlots of attention as a method to improve the performance of futurewireless networks. Capacity analysis and optimum power allocationfor the physical layer of DASs have been extensively exploredin the literature. However, the study of cross-layer issues, suchas channel-aware scheduling and fairness evaluation, is relativelyscarce. This paper partially fills this gap by addressing the downlinkcapacity and fairness analysis of a DAS assisted by jointuser scheduling and transmit power control. The algorithm isevaluated in a multi-cell environment assuming imperfect channelstate information. The algorithm exploits the spatial diversityprovided by the distributed antennas in order to schedule over thesame frequency band a different user attached to each one of thedistributed nodes. The objective is to optimize the power levelsto control the interference created between the transmissionsof the selected users, thereby multiplexing as many of them aspossible while maximizing capacity. To achieve this goal, a sumratecapacity optimization with respect to the power levels ishere proposed by using a gradient descent iterative technique.The result is the set of optimum user-antenna pairs to bescheduled and their optimum power levels. Inter-cell interferenceis calculated by reusing the results of previous simulation runsin the transmission parameters of outer-cells, thereby efficientlyreplicating system-level behavior. The algorithm is also evaluatedin terms of fairness by using the spatial distribution of the usercapacity. Capacity and fairness of the algorithm considerablyoutperform previous solutions, particularly in scenarios withgood line-of-sight and optimum node location

The nucleosynthesis of heavy elements in Stars : The key isotope 25Mg

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedWe have measured the radiative neutron-capture cross section and the total neutron-induced cross section of one of the most important isotopes for the s process, the 25Mg. The measurements have been carried out at the neutron time-of-flight facilities n-TOF at CERN (Switzerland) and GELINA installed at the EC-JRC-IRMM (Belgium). The cross sections as a function of neutron energy have been measured up to approximately 300 keV, covering the energy region of interest to the s process. The data analysis is ongoing and preliminary results show the potential relevance for the s process.Peer reviewe

238U(n, γ) reaction cross section measurement with C 6D6 detectors at the n-TOF CERN facility

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedThe radiative capture cross section of 238U is very important for the developing of new reactor technologies and the safety of existing ones. Here the preliminary results of the 238U(n,γ) cross section measurement performed at n-TOF with C6D6 scintillation detectors are presented, paying particular attention to data reduction and background subtraction.Peer reviewe

High accuracy 234U(n,f) cross section in the resonance energy region

New results are presented of the 234U neutron-induced fission cross section, obtained with high accuracy in the resonance region by means of two methods using the 235U(n,f) as reference. The recent evaluation of the 235U(n,f) obtained with SAMMY by L. C. Leal et al. (these Proceedings), based on previous n-TOF data [1], has been used to calculate the 234U(n,f) cross section through the 234U/235U ratio, being here compared with the results obtained by using the n-TOF neutron flux

High-accuracy determination of the neutron flux in the new experimental area n_TOF-EAR2 at CERN

A new high flux experimental area has recently become operational at the n_TOF facility at CERN. This new measuring station, n_TOF-EAR2, is placed at the end of a vertical beam line at a distance of approximately 20m from the spallation target. The characterization of the neutron beam, in terms of flux, spatial profile and resolution function, is of crucial importance for the feasibility study and data analysis of all measurements to be performed in the new area. In this paper, the measurement of the neutron flux, performed with different solid-state and gaseous detection systems, and using three neutron-converting reactions considered standard in different energy regions is reported. The results of the various measurements have been combined, yielding an evaluated neutron energy distribution in a wide energy range, from 2meV to 100MeV, with an accuracy ranging from 2%, at low energy, to 6% in the high-energy region. In addition, an absolute normalization of the n_TOF-EAR2 neutron flux has been obtained by means of an activation measurement performed with 197Au foils in the beam.Peer reviewe

Neutron spectroscopy of 26Mg states : Constraining the stellar neutron source 22Ne(α,n)25Mg

This work reports on accurate, high-resolution measurements of the 25Mg(n,γ)26Mg and 25Mg(n,tot) cross sections in the neutron energy range from thermal to about 300 keV, leading to a significantly improved 25Mg(n,γ)26Mg parametrization. The relevant resonances for n+25Mg were characterized from a combined R-matrix analysis of the experimental data. This resulted in an unambiguous spin/parity assignment of the corresponding excited states in 26Mg. With this information experimental upper limits of the reaction rates for 22Ne(α,n)25Mg and 22Ne(α,γ)26Mg were established, potentially leading to a significantly higher (α,n)/(α,γ) ratio than previously evaluated. The impact of these results has been studied for stellar models in the mass range 2 to 25 M⊙

The Nuclear Astrophysics program at n-TOF (CERN)

An important experimental program on Nuclear Astrophysics is being carried out at the n-TOF since several years, in order to address the still open issues in stellar and primordial nucleosynthesis. Several neutron capture reactions relevant to s-process nucleosynthesis have been measured so far, some of which on important branching point radioisotopes. Furthermore, the construction of a second experimental area has recently opened the way to challenging measurements of (n, charged particle) reactions on isotopes of short half-life. The Nuclear Astrophysics program of the n-TOF Collaboration is here described, with emphasis on recent results relevant for stellar nucleosynthesis, stellar neutron sources and primordial nucleosynthesis

Sugar beet agronomic performance evolution in NW Spain in future scenarios of climate change

Changes in environmental conditions resulting from Climate Change are expected to have a major impact on crops. In order to foresee adaptation measures and to minimize yield decline, it is necessary to estimate the effect of those changes on the evapotranspiration and on the associated irrigation needs of crops. In the study presented herein, future conditions extracted from RCP4.5 scenario of IPCC, particularized for Castilla-y-León (Spain), were used as inputs for FAO crop simulation model (AquaCrop) to estimate sugar beet agronomic performance in the medium-term (2050 and 2070). A regional analysis of future trends in terms of yield, biomass and CO2 sequestration was carried out. An annual ET0 increase of up to 200 mm was estimated in 2050 and 2070 scenarios, with ETc increases of up to 40 mm/month. At current irrigation levels, temperature rise would be accompanied by a 9% decrease in yield and a ca. 6% decrease in assimilated CO2 in the 2050 and 2070 scenarios. However, it is also shown that the implementation of adequate adaptation measures, in combination with a more efficient irrigation management, may result in up to 17% higher yields and in the storage of between 9% and 13% higher amounts of CO2

Assessment of RGB vegetation indices to estimate chlorophyll content in sugar beet leaves in the final cultivation stage

Estimation of chlorophyll content with portable meters is an easy way to quantify crop nitrogen status in sugar beet leaves. In this work, an alternative for chlorophyll content estimation using RGB-only vegetation indices has been explored. In a first step, pictures of spring-sown ‘Fernanda KWS’ variety sugar beet leaves taken with a commercial camera were used to calculate 25 RGB indices reported in the literature and to obtain 9 new indices through principal component analysis (PCA) and stepwise linear regression (SLR) techniques. The performance of the 34 indices was examined in order to evaluate their ability to estimate chlorophyll content and chlorophyll degradation in the leaves under different natural light conditions along 4 days of the canopy senescence period. Two of the new proposed RGB indices were found to improve the already good performance of the indices reported in the literature, particularly for leaves featuring low chlorophyll contents. The 4 best indices were finally tested in field conditions, using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-taken photographs of a sugar beet plot, finding a reasonably good agreement with chlorophyll-meter data for all indices, in particular for I2 and (R−B)/(R+G+B). Consequently, the suggested RGB indices may hold promise for inexpensive chlorophyll estimation in sugar beet leaves during the harvest time, although a direct relationship with nitrogen status still needs to be validated