Exploring Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Refusal Among Ethnic Minorities in England: A Comparative Qualitative Study.

OBJECTIVES: In England, uptake of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to prevent HPV-related cancer is lower among girls from ethnic minority backgrounds. We aimed to explore the factors that prevented ethnic minority parents from vaccinating, compared to White British non-vaccinating parents and vaccinating ethnic minority parents. METHODS: Interviews with 33 parents (n = 14 ethnic minority non-vaccinating, n = 10 White British non-vaccinating, n = 9 ethnic minority vaccinating) explored parents' reasons for giving or withholding consent for HPV vaccination. Data were analysed using Framework Analysis. RESULTS: Concerns about the vaccine were raised by all non-vaccinating ethnic minority parents, and they wanted information to address these concerns. External and internal influences affected parents' decisions, as well as parents' perceptions that HPV could be prevented using means other than vaccination. Reasons were not always exclusive to non-vaccinating ethnic minority parents, although some were, including a preference for abstinence from sex before marriage. Only ethnic minority parents wanted information provided via workshops. CONCLUSIONS: Ethnic differences in HPV vaccination uptake may be partly explained by concerns that were only reported by parents from some ethnic groups. Interventions to improve uptake may need to tackle difficult topics like abstinence from sex before marriage, and use a targeted format

The phase diagram of water from quantum simulations

The phase diagram of water has been calculated for the TIP4PQ/2005 model, an empirical rigid non-polarisable model. The path integral Monte Carlo technique was used, permitting the incorporation of nuclear quantum effects. The coexistence lines were traced out using the Gibbs-Duhem integration method, once having calculated the free energies of the liquid and solid phases in the quantum limit, which were obtained via thermodynamic integration from the classical value by scaling the mass of the water molecule. The resulting phase diagram is qualitatively correct, being displaced to lower temperatures by 15-20K. It is found that the influence of nuclear quantum effects are correlated to the tetrahedral order parameter.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Discrimination of Food Amounts by the Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris)

The current research examined the ability of dogs to discriminate between different amounts of food. Using a two-alternative-forced-choice procedure, dogs were required to discriminate between a constant amount of 4 pieces of food and another amount that varied across a range from 1 to 7 pieces. The dogs reliably selected the larger of the two alternatives. Discrimination was better when there were fewer than rather than more than 4 pieces of food available on the varying alternative. Specifically, 1 piece was discriminated from 4 pieces more easily than 4 pieces were discriminated from 7 pieces of food. These results confirmed the ability of dogs to discriminate food amount on a psychophysical choice procedure. This research addresses a question fundamental to theories of reinforcement of why reinforcer magnitude does not always control behavior in an intuitive way. We argue that the relative difficulty of discriminating smaller from larger amounts of food is an important factor in understanding the impact of reinforcer magnitude in the development of reinforcer control over behavio

Galaxy-galaxy(-galaxy) lensing as a sensitive probe of galaxy evolution

The gravitational lensing effect provides various ways to study the mass environment of galaxies. We investigate how galaxy-galaxy(-galaxy) lensing can be used to test models of galaxy formation and evolution. We consider two semi-analytic galaxy formation models based on the Millennium Run N-body simulation: the Durham model by Bower et al. (2006) and the Garching model by Guo et al. (2011). We generate mock lensing observations for the two models, and then employ Fast Fourier Transform methods to compute second- and third-order aperture statistics in the simulated fields for various galaxy samples. We find that both models predict qualitatively similar aperture signals, but there are large quantitative differences. The Durham model predicts larger amplitudes in general. In both models, red galaxies exhibit stronger aperture signals than blue galaxies. Using these aperture measurements and assuming a linear deterministic bias model, we measure relative bias ratios of red and blue galaxy samples. We find that a linear deterministic bias is insufficient to describe the relative clustering of model galaxies below ten arcmin angular scales. Dividing galaxies into luminosity bins, the aperture signals decrease with decreasing luminosity for brighter galaxies, but increase again for fainter galaxies. This increase is likely an artifact due to too many faint satellite galaxies in massive group and cluster halos predicted by the models. Our study shows that galaxy-galaxy(-galaxy) lensing is a sensitive probe of galaxy evolution.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, accepted in A&

Highly absorbed X-ray binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Many of the high mass X-ray binaries (HMXRBs) discovered in recent years in our Galaxy are characterized by a high absorption, most likely intrinsic to the system, which hampers their detection at the softest X-ray energies. We have undertaken a search for highly-absorbed X-ray sources in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with a systematic analysis of 62 XMM-Newton SMC observations. We obtained a sample of 30 sources showing evidence for an equivalent hydrogen column density larger than 3x10^23 cm^-2. Five of these sources are clearly identified as HMXRBs: four were already known (including three X-ray pulsars) and one, XMM J005605.8-720012, reported here for the first time. For the latter, we present optical spectroscopy confirming the association with a Be star in the SMC. The other sources in our sample have optical counterparts fainter than magnitude ~16 in the V band, and many of them have possible NIR counterparts consistent with highly reddened early type stars in the SMC. While their number is broadly consistent with the expected population of background highly-absorbed active galactic nuclei, a few of them could be HMXRBs in which an early type companion is severely reddened by local material.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysic

Unveiling the nature of INTEGRAL objects through optical spectroscopy. VIII. Identification of 44 newly detected hard X-ray sources

(abridged) Hard X-ray surveys performed by the INTEGRAL satellite have discovered a conspicuous fraction (up to 30%) of unidentified objects among the detected sources. Here we continue our identification program by selecting probable optical candidates using positional cross-correlation with soft X-ray, radio, and/or optical archives, and performing optical spectroscopy on them. As a result, we identified or more accurately characterized 44 counterparts of INTEGRAL sources: 32 active galactic nuclei, with redshift 0.019 < z < 0.6058, 6 cataclysmic variables (CVs), 5 high-mass X-ray binaries (2 of which in the Small Magellanic Cloud), and 1 low-mass X-ray binary. This was achieved by using 7 telescopes of various sizes and archival data from two online spectroscopic surveys. The main physical parameters of these hard X-ray sources were also determined using the available multiwavelength information. AGNs are the most abundant population among hard X-ray objects, and our results confirm this tendency when optical spectroscopy is used as an identification tool. The deeper sensitivity of recent INTEGRAL surveys enables one to begin detecting hard X-ray emission above 20 keV from sources such as LINER-type AGNs and non-magnetic CVs.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication on A&A, main journa

High level secretion of cellobiohydrolases by Saccharomyces cerevisiae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The main technological impediment to widespread utilization of lignocellulose for the production of fuels and chemicals is the lack of low-cost technologies to overcome its recalcitrance. Organisms that hydrolyze lignocellulose and produce a valuable product such as ethanol at a high rate and titer could significantly reduce the costs of biomass conversion technologies, and will allow separate conversion steps to be combined in a consolidated bioprocess (CBP). Development of <it>Saccharomyces cerevisiae </it>for CBP requires the high level secretion of cellulases, particularly cellobiohydrolases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We expressed various cellobiohydrolases to identify enzymes that were efficiently secreted by <it>S. cerevisiae</it>. For enhanced cellulose hydrolysis, we engineered bimodular derivatives of a well secreted enzyme that naturally lacks the carbohydrate-binding module, and constructed strains expressing combinations of <it>cbh1 </it>and <it>cbh2 </it>genes. Though there was significant variability in the enzyme levels produced, up to approximately 0.3 g/L CBH1 and approximately 1 g/L CBH2 could be produced in high cell density fermentations. Furthermore, we could show activation of the unfolded protein response as a result of cellobiohydrolase production. Finally, we report fermentation of microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel™) to ethanol by CBH-producing <it>S. cerevisiae </it>strains with the addition of beta-glucosidase.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Gene or protein specific features and compatibility with the host are important for efficient cellobiohydrolase secretion in yeast. The present work demonstrated that production of both CBH1 and CBH2 could be improved to levels where the barrier to CBH sufficiency in the hydrolysis of cellulose was overcome.</p

Hard X-ray observations of PSR J1833-1034 and its associated pulsar wind nebula

PSR J1833-1034 and its associated Pulsar Wind Nebula (PWN) has been investigated in depth through X-ray observations ranging from 0.1 to 200 keV. The low energy X-ray data from Chandra reveal a complex morphology that is characterised by a bright central plerion, no thermal shell and an extended diffuse halo. The spectral emission from the central plerion softens with radial distance from the pulsar, with the spectral index ranging from $\Gamma$ = 1.61 in the central region to $\Gamma$ =2.36 at the edge of the PWN. At higher energy INTEGRAL detected the source in the 17--200 keV range. The data analysis clearly shows that the main contribution to the spectral emission in the hard X-ray energy range is originated from the PWN, while the pulsar is dominant above 200 keV. Recent HESS observations in the high energy gamma-ray domain show that PSR J1833-1034 is a bright TeV emitter, with a flux corresponding to $\sim$2 per cent of the Crab in 1--10 TeV range. In addition the spectral shape in the TeV energy region matches well with that in the hard X-rays observed by INTEGRAL. Based on these findings, we conclude that the emission from the pulsar and its associated PWN can be described in a scenario where hard X-rays are produced through synchrotron light of electrons with Lorentz factor $\gamma\sim10^{9}$ in a magnetic field of $\sim$10 micro Gauss. In this hypothesis the TeV emission is due to Inverse Compton interaction of the cooled electrons off the Cosmic Microwave Background photons. Search for PSR J1833-1034 X-ray pulsed emission, via RXTE and Swift X-ray observations, resulted in an upper limit that is about 50 per cent.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for pubblication in MNRA

First results from a second generation galactic axion experiment

We report first results from a large scale search for dark matter axions. The experiment probes axion masses of 1.3-13 micro-eV at a sensitivity which is about 50 times higher than previous pilot experiments. We have already scanned part of this mass range at a sensitivity better than required to see at least one generic axion model, the KSVZ axion. Data taking at full sensitivity commenced in February 1996 and scanning the proposed mass range will require three years