2,927 research outputs found
An extreme paucity of second population AGB stars in the normal globular cluster M4
Galactic Globular clusters (GCs) are now known to harbour multiple stellar
populations, which are chemically distinct in many light element abundances. It
is becoming increasingly clear that asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in GCs
show different abundance distributions in light elements compared to those in
the red giant branch (RGB) and other phases, skewing toward more primordial,
field-star-like abundances, which we refer to as subpopulation one (SP1). As
part of a larger program targeting giants in GCs, we obtained high-resolution
spectra for a sample of 106 RGB and 15 AGB stars in Messier 4 (NGC 6121) using
the 2dF+HERMES facility on the Anglo-Australian Telescope. In this Letter we
report an extreme paucity of AGB stars with [Na/O] > -0.17 in M4, which
contrasts with the RGB that has abundances up to [Na/O] =0.55. The AGB
abundance distribution is consistent with all AGB stars being from SP1. This
result appears to imply that all subpopulation two stars (SP2; Na-rich, O-poor)
avoid the AGB phase. This is an unexpected result given M4's horizontal branch
morphology -- it does not have an extended blue horizontal branch. This is the
first abundance study to be performed utilising the HERMES spectrograph.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 4 tables (full Table 1 online). Accepted for
publication in MNRAS Letter
AGB subpopulations in the nearby globular cluster NGC 6397
It has been well established that Galactic Globular clusters (GCs) harbour
more than one stellar population, distinguishable by the anti-correlations of
light element abundances (C-N, Na-O, and Mg-Al). These studies have been
extended recently to the asymptotic giant branch (AGB). Here we investigate the
AGB of NGC 6397 for the first time. We have performed an abundance analysis of
high-resolution spectra of 47 RGB and 8 AGB stars, deriving Fe, Na, O, Mg and
Al abundances. We find that NGC 6397 shows no evidence of a deficit in Na-rich
AGB stars, as reported for some other GCs - the subpopulation ratios of the AGB
and RGB in NGC 6397 are identical, within uncertainties. This agrees with
expectations from stellar theory. This GC acts as a control for our earlier
work on the AGB of M 4 (with contrasting results), since the same tools and
methods were used.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 8 tables (2 online-only). Accepted for
publication in MNRA
[Accepted Manuscript] Optimizing tubal ligation service delivery: a prospective cohort study to measure the task-sharing experience of Marie Stopes International Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government implements a progressive task-sharing policy for health services as a strategy to address shortages of highly skilled providers and increase access to critical services, such as family planning. Since 2009, Marie Stopes International Ethiopia has trained health officers to provide tubal ligations, a permanent method of family planning, as part of its task-sharing strategy. The objectives of this research were to evaluate task-sharing tubal ligations to health officers at Marie Stopes International Ethiopia, specifically: (a) to investigate safety, as measured by the proportion of major adverse events; (b) to evaluate the feasibility, as measured by adherence to the standard tubal ligation procedure protocol and (c) to investigate acceptability to clients of the tubal ligation procedure provided by health officers. We established a prospective cohort of women aged ≥18 years presenting for tubal ligation at Marie Stopes International Ethiopia sites in three regions in Ethiopia (March-May 2014). Data on adverse events (incomplete procedure, pain, bleeding, infection, perforation) were collected intra-operatively; peri-operatively (1-h post-procedure); and post-operatively (7 days post-procedure). To measure feasibility, 65% of procedures were selected for 'audit', where a nurse observed and scored health officers adherence to standard protocol using an 18-item checklist. To assess acceptability, women were asked about their satisfaction with the procedure. In total, 276 women were enrolled in the study. 97.5% of procedures took place in rural settings. All participants were followed up 7 days post-procedure (100% response rate). The overall proportion of major adverse events was 3% (95% CI 1-6%). The most frequent adverse event was 'failure to complete the TL' (2.2%, n = 6). The average score on protocol adherence was 96.9%. Overall, 98.2% (n = 271) of clients would recommend the procedure to a friend. Findings from this study, indicating safety, feasibility and acceptability, are consistent with the existing literature, which indicate safety and acceptability for task-sharing tubal ligations, and other methods of contraception with non-physician health providers. This study adds to scant literature on task-sharing tubal ligations in rural and low-resource settings.<br/
The misogyny of iron deficiency
Anaemia is common, particularly in women and the commonest underlying cause, iron deficiency, is often overlooked. Anaemia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing anaesthesia; however, women are defined as being anaemic at a lower haemoglobin level than men. In this narrative review, we present the history of iron deficiency anaemia and how women’s health has often been overlooked. Iron deficiency was first described as ‘chlorosis’ and a cause of ‘hysteria’ in women and initial treatment was by iron filings in cold wine. We present data of population screening demonstrating how common iron deficiency is, affecting 12–18% of apparently ‘fit and healthy’ women, with the most common cause being heavy menstrual bleeding; both conditions being often unrecognised. We describe a range of symptoms reported by women, that vary from fatigue to brain fog, hair loss and eating ice. We also describe experiments exploring the physical impact of iron deficiency, showing that reduced exercise performance is related to iron deficiency independent of haemoglobin concentration, as well as the impact of iron supplementation in women improving oxygen consumption and fitness. Overall, we demonstrate the need to single out women and investigate iron deficiency rather than accept the dogma of normality and differential treatment; this is to say, the need to change the current standard of care for women undergoing anaesthesia
Magnetic Ordering, Orbital Ordering and Resonant X-ray Scattering in Perovskite Titanates
The effective Hamiltonian for perovskite titanates is derived by taking into
account the three-fold degeneracy of orbitals and the strong
electron-electron interactions. The magnetic and orbital ordered phases are
studied in the mean-field approximation applied to the effective Hamiltonian. A
large degeneracy of the orbital states in the ferromagnetic phase is found in
contrast to the case of the doubly degenerate orbitals. Lifting of this
orbital degeneracy due to lattice distortions and spin-orbit coupling is
examined. A general form for the scattering cross section of the resonant x-ray
scattering is derived and is applied to the recent experimental results in
YTiO. The spin wave dispersion relation in the orbital ordered YTiO is
also studied.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Hidden Symmetries and their Consequences in Cubic Perovskites
The five-band Hubbard model for a band with one electron per site is a
model which has very interesting properties when the relevant ions are located
at sites with high (e. g. cubic) symmetry. In that case, if the crystal field
splitting is large one may consider excitations confined to the lowest
threefold degenerate orbital states. When the electron hopping matrix
element () is much smaller than the on-site Coulomb interaction energy
(), the Hubbard model can be mapped onto the well-known effective
Hamiltonian (at order ) derived by Kugel and Khomskii (KK). Recently
we have shown that the KK Hamiltonian does not support long range spin order at
any nonzero temperature due to several novel hidden symmetries that it
possesses. Here we extend our theory to show that these symmetries also apply
to the underlying three-band Hubbard model. Using these symmetries we develop a
rigorous Mermin-Wagner construction, which shows that the three-band Hubbard
model does not support spontaneous long-range spin order at any nonzero
temperature and at any order in -- despite the three-dimensional lattice
structure. Introduction of spin-orbit coupling does allow spin ordering, but
even then the excitation spectrum is gapless due to a subtle continuous
symmetry. Finally we showed that these hidden symmetries dramatically simplify
the numerical exact diagonalization studies of finite clusters.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, 520 KB, submitted Phys. Rev.
Race and sex: teachers' views on who gets ahead in schools?
The research reported here was part of a large study of the impact of age, disability, race and sex on the teaching profession in England. The basic question asked in this research was how do these factors interact with career aspirations and achievements of classteachers, promoted teachers and headteachers? There were three different data sources: a large postal survey drawn from diverse geographic regions across England with over 2000 respondents; face‐to‐face individual interviews with over 100 teachers in 18 case study schools from across all of the main regions of England; discussions with special interest groups of teachers. Not surprisingly, the answer to the above question was complex. Nonetheless, the paper's conclusion highlights some of the noteworthy themes across this broad sample of teachers from primary, secondary and special schools
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