A Fair Start? Child Mortality and Morbidity in the South West.

Children in the South West region are, overall, healthierthan their counterparts in other regions. However, many ofthe child deaths and much of the morbidity are potentiallyavoidable, suggesting that there is still considerable roomfor improvement.In order to understand how best these improvementscan be made, and which areas, causes and populationgroups should be prioritised, it is essential to understandvariations by age group, sex, deprivation and geography.This report has used readily available sources ofinformation to highlight some of these variations. Findingsof particular importance are:• Infant mortality rates are generally low in the regioncompared to England. Latest estimates suggest thatthe inequalities target for the South West is toughbut achievable by 2010. In addition, the region doesnot compare favourably to some of its Europeancounterparts on child health indicators, highlighting thefact that there is more to be done. If infant mortalityin the South West as a whole was at the level of thequintile with the lowest mortality, about 50 infant livescould be saved each year.• Mortality rates in children aged 1–19 are generallylower than in the first year of life, but these still exhibita steep socioeconomic gradient and a large proportionare potentially avoidable. The main causes of deathvary by age and sex, but injuries, suicides and cancersare the biggest contributors, making up over 50% of allcauses. Almost two-thirds of male deaths and half offemale deaths are classified as potentially avoidable.• There is also strong evidence of a steepsocioeconomic gradient for child morbidity in theregion.• Hospital admission rates in the South West are higherthan for England, and the causes of these admissionsvary by age, sex and deprivation. In younger children(aged 0–4) acute respiratory infections predominate,while the most common causes in children aged 5–14are injuries, especially in boys. The most commonreason for admissions in the 15–19 age group isneoplasms and accidents for boys, and abdominalpain, nausea and vomiting, and abortive pregnancy forgirls. Deliberate self-harm features among the reasonsfor emergency admission of girls of 15–19.• Generally, injuries, self-harm, abortive pregnancy andear, nose and throat (ENT) conditions contribute mostto childhood morbidity in the South West.These results show that, despite the fact that childrenin the South West are, on average, healthier than theircounterparts elsewhere in England, there are still largenumbers suffering from potentially avoidable conditions,which in some cases result in death. The majority of thesecases appear to be concentrated in the most deprivedcommunities. It is therefore paramount that decisionsand interventions focused on the health of children in theSouth West are targeted at the populations most at riskand at potentially avoidable causes

Electrostatic protection of the Solar Power Satellite and rectenna

Several features of the interactions of the solar power satellite (SPS) with its space environment were examined theoretically. The voltages produced at various surfaces due to space plasmas and the plasma leakage currents through the kapton and sapphire solar cell blankets were calculated. At geosynchronous orbit, this parasitic power loss is only 0.7%, and is easily compensated by oversizing. At low-Earth orbit, the power loss is potentially much larger (3%), and anomalous arcing is expected for the EOTV high voltage negative surfaces. Preliminary results of a three dimensional self-consistent plasma and electric field computer program are presented, confirming the validity of the predictions made from the one dimensional models. Magnetic shielding of the satellite, to reduce the power drain and to protect the solar cells from energetic electron and plasma ion bombardment is considered. It is concluded that minor modifications can allow the SPS to operate safely and efficiently in its space environment. The SPS design employed in this study is the 1978 MSFC baseline design utilizing GaAs solar cells at CR-2 and an aluminum structure

Correlated X-ray and Optical Variability in Mkn 509

We present results of a 3 year monitoring campaign of the Seyfert 1 galaxy Markarian 509, using X-ray data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) and optical data taken by the SMARTS consortium. Both light curves show significant variations, and are strongly correlated with the optical flux leading the X-ray flux by 15 days. The X-ray power spectrum shows a steep high-frequency slope of -2.0, breaking to a slope of -1.0 at at timescale of 34 days. The lag from optical to X-ray emission is most likely caused by variations in the accretion disk propagating inward.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Slowly driven sandpile formation with granular mixtures

We introduce a one-dimensional sandpile model with $N$ different particle types and an infinitesimal driving rate. The parameters for the model are the N^2 critical slopes for one type of particle on top of another. The model is trivial when N=1, but for N=2 we observe four broad classes of sandpile structure in different regions of the parameter space. We describe and explain the behaviour of each of these classes, giving quantitative analysis wherever possible. The behaviour of sandpiles with N>2 essentially consists of combinations of these four classes. We investigate the model's robustness and highlight the key areas that any experiment designed to reproduce these results should focus on

Factors Influencing Largemouth Bass Recruitment: Implications for the Illinois Management and Stocking Program

Annual Progress Report issued August 2002; NOTE: Two different reports numbered 02/06 were issued from the CAE.Report issued on: August 2002INHS Technical Report prepared for Division of Fisheries Illinois Department of Natural Resource

Observation of magnetization reversal and negative magnetization in a double perovskite compound Sr2YbRuO6

Detailed magnetic properties of the compound Sr2YbRuO6 are presented here. The compound belongs to the family of double perovskites forming a monoclinic structure. Magnetization meas-urements reveal clear evidence for two components of magnetic ordering aligned opposite to each other, leading to a magnetization reversal, compensation temperature (T* = 34 K) and neg-ative magnetization at low temperatures and low magnetic fields. Heat capacity measurements corroborate the presence of two components in the magnetic ordering and a noticeable third anomaly at low temperatures (~15 K) which cannot be attributed the Schottky effect. The calcu-lated magnetic entropy is substantially lower than that expected for the ground states of the or-dered moments of Ru5+ and Yb3+, indicating the presence of large crystal field effects and/ or in-complete magnetic ordering and/or magnetic frustrations well above the magnetic ordering. An attempt is made to explain the magnetization reversal within the frameworks of available models.Comment: 15 pages text, 6 figures Journal-ref: J.Phys.:Condens.Matter 20(2008)23520

Advanced-stage cervix cancer: rapid tumour growth rather than late diagnosis

Either diagnostic delay or tumour biology are possible factors governing the degree of spread at diagnosis of cervical cancer. To try to identify the most important parameter contributing to advanced stage, the duration of symptoms were recorded from patients scheduled for radiotherapy (n = 141) or radical hysterectomy (n = 36). In 146 cases tumour proliferation rates were evaluated following in vivo labelling with the DNA precursor BrdUrd. For symptomatic patients there was no association between duration of symptoms and stage at presentation. There was a significant trend for patients with increasing tumour stage to have more rapidly proliferating tumours with higher mean labelling index (LI) measurements (P = 0.001) and a shorter mean potential doubling time (Tpot) (P = 0.023). Socio economic deprivation may be associated with shorter Tpot values. The conclusion from this data is that stage at diagnosis is more dependent on the biological behaviour of the tumour, as expressed by proliferation rates, than delay in presentation. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

On the interpretation of spin-polarized electron energy loss spectra

We study the origin of the structure in the spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy (SPEELS) spectra of ferromagnetic crystals. Our study is based on a 3d tight-binding Fe model, with constant onsite Coulomb repulsion U between electrons of opposite spin. We find it is not the total density of Stoner states as a function of energy loss which determines the response of the system in the Stoner region, as usually thought, but the densities of Stoner states for only a few interband transitions. Which transitions are important depends ultimately on how strongly umklapp processes couple the corresponding bands. This allows us to show, in particular, that the Stoner peak in SPEELS spectra does not necessarily indicate the value of the exchange splitting energy. Thus, the common assumption that this peak allows us to estimate the magnetic moment through its correlation with exchange splitting should be reconsidered, both in bulk and surface studies. Furthermore, we are able to show that the above mechanism is one of the main causes for the typical broadness of experimental spectra. Finally, our model predicts that optical spin waves should be excited in SPEELS experiments.Comment: 11 pages, 7 eps figures, REVTeX fil

The Line-of-Sight Proximity Effect and the Mass of Quasar Host Halos

We show that the Lyman-alpha optical depth statistics in the proximity regions of quasar spectra depend on the mass of the dark matter halos hosting the quasars. This is owing to both the overdensity around the quasars and the associated infall of gas toward them. For a fiducial quasar host halo mass of (3.0+/-1.6) h^-1 x 10^12 Msun, as inferred by Croom et al. from clustering in the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey, we show that estimates of the ionizing background (Gamma^bkg) from proximity effect measurements could be biased high by a factor of ~2.5 at z=3 owing to neglecting these effects alone. The clustering of galaxies and other active galactic nuclei around the proximity effect quasars enhances the local background, but is not expected to skew measurements by more than a few percent. Assuming the measurements of Gamma^bkg based on the mean flux decrement in the Ly-alpha forest to be free of bias, we demonstrate how the proximity effect analysis can be inverted to measure the mass of the dark matter halos hosting quasars. In ideal conditions, such a measurement could be made with a precision comparable to the best clustering constraints to date from a modest sample of only about 100 spectra. We discuss observational difficulties, including continuum flux estimation, quasar systematic redshift determination, and quasar variability, which make accurate proximity effect measurements challenging in practice. These are also likely to contribute to the discrepancies between existing proximity effect and flux decrement measurements of Gamma^bkg.Comment: 25 pages, including 14 figures, accepted by Ap