61 research outputs found
Classic grounded theory: Identifying the main concern
Grounded theory comprises a family of research approaches designed to support the generation of a theory explaining a phenomenon experienced by a group of participants. One style of grounded theory, Classic grounded theory, is used less often than other types of grounded theory. The less frequent use of Classic grounded theory may be attributed to the limited availability of clearly articulated processes for conducting this method. Particularly important within Classic grounded theory, and not used in other forms of grounded theory, is identifying the participants\u27 main concern. Identifying the participants\u27 main concern is a signature feature of Classic grounded theory and is a prerequisite for ascertaining the core category and subsequent discovery of theory. In this article we provide a detailed explanation of how to identify the participants\u27 main concern, and in so doing, we offer an exemplar to illustrate the process involved
Evaluation of a Coping Kit of Items to Support Children with Developmental Disorders in the Hospital Setting
This study attempted to answer the question, Do nurses perceive coping kits to be effective at meeting the needs of hospitalized children with developmental disabilities who are at increased risk for challenging behaviors? A cross-sectional post-test survey study design was used, with a convenience sample of 24 registered nurses at a Midwestern free-standing children\u27s hospital. A coping kit with simple communication cards, social script book, and distraction items (toys) was developed to enhance communication and distract children with developmental disabilities (including autism spectrum disorder) undergoing procedures in the hospital. A modified version of Hudson\u27s (2006) intervention effectiveness survey was used to measure the nurse\u27s perception of the effectiveness of the coping kit. Nurses perceived the coping kits to be effective for decreasing their patient\u27s anxiety, calming the child\u27s behavior, and increasing cooperation during procedures. The nurse can develop a plan of care that includes a coping kit to help gain cooperation with the hospitalized child with challenging behaviors
Student evaluation of teaching: Reactions of Australian academics to anonymous non-constructive student commentary.
Within Australian higher education, student evaluation of teaching (SET) is regularly conducted and data are utilised for quality control and staff appraisal. Within current methodologies, students can anonymously provide further feedback as written commentary. There is now growing evidence that, once this narrative becomes derogatory or abusive, it may have the potential to create harm. To investigate staff reactions to receiving anonymous non-constructive commentary, a one group point in time design was constructed, and a survey conducted. Participants (N = 741) from a broad cross-section of Australian universities responded to Likert questions asking about their reactions. A significant impact was revealed according to age for mental health, stress and professional confidence, with younger and tenured academics indicating the most vulnerability. There were no differences across gender. Non-health disciplines with teaching loads greater than 50% reported an impact of anonymous SET on mental health and professional confidence. Being casually or seasonally employed or from an ethnic background was shown to have a significant effect on professional confidence. Findings suggest that the potential for higher education academics to be harmed via this process is a continued risk and highlights the need for review and reform of SET systems and protocols
Estimate of dark halo ellipticity by lensing flexion
Aims. The predictions of the ellipticity of the dark matter halos from models
of structure formation are notoriously difficult to test with observations. A
direct measurement would give important constraints on the formation of
galaxies, and its effect on the dark matter distribution in their halos. Here
we show that galaxy-galaxy flexion provides a direct and potentially powerful
method for determining the ellipticity of (an ensemble of) elliptical lenses.
Methods. We decompose the spin-1 flexion into a radial and a tangential
component. Using the ratio of tangential-to- radial flexion, which is
independent of the radial mass profile, the mass ellipticity can be estimated.
Results. An estimator for the ellipticity of the mass distribution is derived
and tested with simulations. We show that the estimator is slightly biased. We
quantify this bias, and provide a method to reduce it. Furthermore, a
parametric fitting of the flexion ratio and orientation provides another
estimate for the dark halo ellipticity, which is more accurate for individual
lenses Overall, galaxy-galaxy flexion appears as a powerful tool for
constraining the ellipticity of mass distributions.Comment: 6 pages,5 figures, submitted to AA, comments welcom
Multi-scale cluster lens mass mapping I. Strong Lensing modelling
We propose a novel technique to refine the modelling of galaxy clusters mass
distribution using gravitational lensing. The idea is to combine the strengths
of both "parametric" and "non-parametric" methods to improve the quality of the
fit. We develop a multi-scale model that allows sharper contrast in regions of
higher density where the number of constraints is generally higher. Our model
consists of (i) a multi-scale grid of radial basis functions with physically
motivated profiles and (ii) a list of galaxy-scale potentials at the location
of the cluster member galaxies. This arrangement of potentials of different
sizes allows to reach a high resolution for the model with a minimum number of
parameters. We apply our model to the well studied cluster Abell 1689. We
estimate the quality of our mass reconstruction with a Bayesian MCMC sampler.
For a selected subset of multiple images, we manage to halve the errors between
the predicted and observed image positions compared to previous studies. This
owes to the flexibility of multi-scale models at intermediate scale between
cluster and galaxy scale. The software developed for this paper is part of the
public lenstool package which can be found at www.oamp.fr/cosmology/lenstool.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Analytical shear and flexion of Einasto dark matter haloes
N-body simulations predict that dark matter haloes are described by specific
density profiles on both galactic- and cluster-sized scales. Weak gravitational
lensing through the measurements of their first and second order properties,
shear and flexion, is a powerful observational tool for investigating the true
shape of these profiles. One of the three-parameter density profiles recently
favoured in the description of dark matter haloes is the Einasto profile. We
present exact expressions for the shear and the first and second flexions of
Einasto dark matter haloes derived using a Mellin-transform formalism in terms
of the Fox H and Meijer G functions, that are valid for general values of the
Einasto index. The resulting expressions can be written as series expansions
that permit us to investigate the asymptotic behaviour of these quantities.
Moreover, we compare the shear and flexion of the Einasto profile with those of
different mass profiles including the singular isothermal sphere, the
Navarro-Frenk-White profile, and the S\'ersic profile. We investigate the
concentration and index dependences of the Einasto profile, finding that the
shear and second flexion could be used to determine the halo concentration,
whilst for the Einasto index the shear and first and second flexions may be
employed. We also provide simplified expressions for the weak lensing
properties and other lensing quantities in terms of the generalized
hypergeometric function.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Strong-Lensing Analysis of a Complete Sample of 12 MACS Clusters at z>0.5: Mass Models and Einstein Radii
We present the results of a strong-lensing analysis of a complete sample of
12 very luminous X-ray clusters at using HST/ACS images. Our modelling
technique has uncovered some of the largest known critical curves outlined by
many accurately-predicted sets of multiple images. The distribution of Einstein
radii has a median value of \simeq28\arcsec (for a source redshift of
), twice as large as other lower- samples, and extends to
55\arcsec for MACS J0717.5+3745, with an impressive enclosed Einstein mass of
. We find that 9 clusters cover a very large area
(>2.5 \sq \arcmin) of high magnification () for a source
redshift of , providing primary targets for accessing the first
stars and galaxies. We compare our results with theoretical predictions of the
standard CDM model which we show systematically fall short of our
measured Einstein radii by a factor of , after accounting for the
effect of lensing projection. Nevertheless, a revised analysis once arc
redshifts become available, and similar analyses of larger samples, are needed
in order to establish more precisely the level of discrepancy with CDM
predictions.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 19 pages, 35 figures, 2 tables. V2
includes several changes, mainly additional discussion of the results. A
higher resolution version is available at
ftp://wise-ftp.tau.ac.il/pub/adiz/macs1
Cluster Lenses
Clusters of galaxies are the most recently assembled, massive, bound
structures in the Universe. As predicted by General Relativity, given their
masses, clusters strongly deform space-time in their vicinity. Clusters act as
some of the most powerful gravitational lenses in the Universe. Light rays
traversing through clusters from distant sources are hence deflected, and the
resulting images of these distant objects therefore appear distorted and
magnified. Lensing by clusters occurs in two regimes, each with unique
observational signatures. The strong lensing regime is characterized by effects
readily seen by eye, namely, the production of giant arcs, multiple-images, and
arclets. The weak lensing regime is characterized by small deformations in the
shapes of background galaxies only detectable statistically. Cluster lenses
have been exploited successfully to address several important current questions
in cosmology: (i) the study of the lens(es) - understanding cluster mass
distributions and issues pertaining to cluster formation and evolution, as well
as constraining the nature of dark matter; (ii) the study of the lensed objects
- probing the properties of the background lensed galaxy population - which is
statistically at higher redshifts and of lower intrinsic luminosity thus
enabling the probing of galaxy formation at the earliest times right up to the
Dark Ages; and (iii) the study of the geometry of the Universe - as the
strength of lensing depends on the ratios of angular diameter distances between
the lens, source and observer, lens deflections are sensitive to the value of
cosmological parameters and offer a powerful geometric tool to probe Dark
Energy. In this review, we present the basics of cluster lensing and provide a
current status report of the field.Comment: About 120 pages - Published in Open Access at:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/j183018170485723/ . arXiv admin note:
text overlap with arXiv:astro-ph/0504478 and arXiv:1003.3674 by other author
Halo Shapes From Weak Lensing: The Impact of Galaxy--Halo Misalignment
We analyse the impact of galaxy--halo misalignment on the ability of weak
lensing studies to constrain the shape of dark matter haloes, using a
combination of the Millennium dark matter N-body simulation and different
semi-analytic galaxy formation models, as well as simpler Monte Carlo tests.
Since the distribution of galaxy--halo alignments is not known in detail, we
test various alignment models, together with different methods of determining
the halo shape. In addition to alignment, we examine the interplay of halo mass
and shape, and galaxy colour and morphology with the resulting stacked
projected halo shape. We find that only in the case where significant numbers
of galaxy and halo minor axes are parallel does the stacked, projected halo
axis ratio fall below 0.95. When using broader misalignment distributions, such
as those found in recent simulations of galaxy formation, the halo ellipticity
signal is washed out and would be extremely difficult to measure
observationally. It is important to note that the spread in stacked halo axis
ratio due to theoretical unknowns (differences between semi-analytic models,
and between alignment models) are much bigger than any statistical uncertainty:
It is naive to assume that, simply because LCDM predicts aspherical haloes, the
stacked projected shape will be elliptical. In fact, there is no robust LCDM
prediction yet for this procedure, and the interpretation of any such
elliptical halo signal from lensing in terms of physical halo properties will
be extremely difficult.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS. Minor
changes for clarification and correcting typeo
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