Tackling climate change with blockchain

Concern about the carbon footprint of Bitcoin is not holding back blockchain developers from leveraging the technology for action on climate change. Although blockchain technology is enabling individuals and businesses to manage their carbon emissions, the social and environmental costs and benefits of doing so remain unclear

Paper II: Calibration of the Swift ultraviolet/optical telescope

The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) is one of three instruments onboard the Swift observatory. The photometric calibration has been published, and this paper follows up with details on other aspects of the calibration including a measurement of the point spread function with an assessment of the orbital variation and the effect on photometry. A correction for large scale variations in sensitivity over the field of view is described, as well as a model of the coincidence loss which is used to assess the coincidence correction in extended regions. We have provided a correction for the detector distortion and measured the resulting internal astrometric accuracy of the UVOT, also giving the absolute accuracy with respect to the International Celestial Reference System. We have compiled statistics on the background count rates, and discuss the sources of the background, including instrumental scattered light. In each case we describe any impact on UVOT measurements, whether any correction is applied in the standard pipeline data processing or whether further steps are recommended.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 15 pages, 21 figures, 4 table

Economies of space and the school geography curriculum

This paper is about the images of economic space that are found in school curricula. It suggests the importance for educators of evaluating these representations in terms of the messages they contain about how social processes operate. The paper uses school geography texts in Britain since the 1970s to illustrate the different ways in which economic space has been represented to students, before exploring some alternative resources that could be used to provide a wider range of representations of economic space. The paper highlights the continued importance of understanding the politics of school knowledge

Photometric Calibration of the Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope

We present the photometric calibration of the Swift UltraViolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) which includes: optimum photometric and background apertures, effective area curves, colour transformations, conversion factors for count rates to flux, and the photometric zero points (which are accurate to better than 4 per cent) for each of the seven UVOT broadband filters. The calibration was performed with observations of standard stars and standard star fields that represent a wide range of spectral star types. The calibration results include the position dependent uniformity, and instrument response over the 1600-8000A operational range. Because the UVOT is a photon counting instrument, we also discuss the effect of coincidence loss on the calibration results. We provide practical guidelines for using the calibration in UVOT data analysis. The results presented here supersede previous calibration results.Comment: Minor improvements after referees report. Accepted for publication in MNRA

ELPA: A parallel solver for the generalized eigenvalue problem

For symmetric (hermitian) (dense or banded) matrices the computation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors Ax = λBx is an important task, e.g. in electronic structure calculations. If a larger number of eigenvectors are needed, often direct solvers are applied. On parallel architectures the ELPA implementation has proven to be very efficient, also compared to other parallel solvers like EigenExa or MAGMA. The main improvement that allows better parallel efficiency in ELPA is the two-step transformation of dense to band to tridiagonal form. This was the achievement of the ELPA project. The continuation of this project has been targeting at additional improvements like allowing monitoring and autotuning of the ELPA code, optimizing the code for different architectures, developing curtailed algorithms for banded A and B, and applying the improved code to solve typical examples in electronic structure calculations. In this paper we will present the outcome of this project

A genome annotation-driven approach to cloning the human ORFeome.

We have developed a systematic approach to generating cDNA clones containing full-length open reading frames (ORFs), exploiting knowledge of gene structure from genomic sequence. Each ORF was amplified by PCR from a pool of primary cDNAs, cloned and confirmed by sequencing. We obtained clones representing 70% of genes on human chromosome 22, whereas searching available cDNA clone collections found at best 48% from a single collection and 60% for all collections combined.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

The International Alcohol Control Study: Methodology and implementation.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS: The International Alcohol Control (IAC) Study is a multi-country collaborative project to assess patterns of alcohol consumption and the impact of alcohol control policy. The aim of this paper is to report the methods and implementation of the IAC. DESIGN AND METHODS: The IAC has been implemented among drinkers 16-65 years in high- and middle-income countries: Australia, England, Scotland, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, Thailand, South Africa, Peru, Mongolia and Vietnam (the latter four samples were sub-national). Two research instruments were used: the IAC survey of drinkers and the Alcohol Environmental Protocol (a protocol for policy analysis). The survey was administered via computer-assisted interview and the Alcohol Environmental Protocol data were collected via document review, administrative or commercial data and key informant interviews. RESULTS: The IAC instruments were readily adapted for cross-country use. The IAC methodology has provided cross-country survey data on key measures of alcohol consumption (quantity, frequency and volume), aspects of policy relevant behaviour and policy implementation: availability, price, purchasing, marketing and drink driving. The median response rate for all countries was 60% (range 16% to 99%). Where data on alcohol available for consumption were available the validity of survey consumption measures were assessed by calculating survey coverage found to be 86% or above. Differential response bias was handled, to the extent it could be, using post-stratification weights. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: The IAC study will allow for cross-country analysis of drinking patterns, the relationship between alcohol use and policy relevant behaviour in different countries

The XMM-Newton Optical/UV Monitor Telescope

The XMM-OM instrument extends the spectral coverage of the XMM-Newton observatory into the ultraviolet and optical range. It provides imaging and time-resolved data on targets simultaneously with observations in the EPIC and RGS. It also has the ability to track stars in its field of view, thus providing an improved post-facto aspect solution for the spacecraft. An overview of the XMM-OM and its operation is given, together with current information on the performance of the instrument

Measuring the effectiveness of in-hospital and on-base Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y.) programs on reducing alcohol related harms in naval trainees: P.A.R.T.Y. Defence study protocol

Abstract Background Reducing alcohol related harms in Australian Defence Force (ADF) trainees has been identified as a priority, but there are few evidence-based prevention programs available for the military setting. The study aims to test whether the P.A.R.T.Y. program delivered in-hospital or on-base, can reduce harmful alcohol consumption among ADF trainees. Methods/design The study is a 3-arm randomized controlled trial, involving 953 Royal Australian Navy trainees from a single base. Trainees, aged 18 to 30 years, will be randomly assigned to the study arms: i. in-hospital P.A.R.T.Y.; ii. On-base P.A.R.T.Y.; and iii. Control group. All groups will receive the routine ADF annual alcohol awareness training. The primary outcome is the proportion of participants reporting an Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score of 8 or above at 12 months’ post-intervention. The secondary outcome is the number of alcohol related incidents reported to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the 12 months’ post-intervention. Discussion This is the first trial of the use of the P.A.R.T.Y. program in the military. If the proposed intervention proves efficacious, it may be a useful program in the early education of RAN trainees. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR): ACTRN12614001332617 , date of registration: 18/12/2014 ‘retrospectively registered’

Solid confirmation of the broad DIB around 864.8 nm using stacked Gaia–RVS spectra

Context. Studies of the correlation between different diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are important for exploring their origins. However, the Gaia–RVS spectral window between 846 and 870 nm contains few DIBs, the strong DIB at 862 nm being the only convincingly confirmed one. / Aims. Here we attempt to confirm the existence of a broad DIB around 864.8 nm and estimate its characteristics using the stacked Gaia–RVS spectra of a large number of stars. We study the correlations between the two DIBs at 862 nm (λ862) and 864.8 nm (λ864.8), as well as the interstellar extinction. / Methods. We obtained spectra of the interstellar medium (ISM) absorption by subtracting the stellar components using templates constructed from real spectra at high Galactic latitudes with low extinctions. We then stacked the ISM spectra in Galactic coordinates (ℓ,  b) – pixelized by the HEALPix scheme – to measure the DIBs. The stacked spectrum is modeled by the profiles of the two DIBs, Gaussian for λ862 and Lorentzian for λ864.8, and a linear continuum. We report the fitted central depth (CD), central wavelength, equivalent width (EW), and their uncertainties for the two DIBs. / Results. We obtain 8458 stacked spectra in total, of which 1103 (13%) have reliable fitting results after applying numerous conservative filters. This work is the first of its kind to fit and measure λ862 and λ864.8 simultaneously in cool-star spectra. Based on these measurements, we find that the EWs and CDs of λ862 and λ864.8 are well correlated with each other, with Pearson coefficients (rp) of 0.78 and 0.87, respectively. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of λ864.8 is estimated as 1.62 ± 0.33 nm which compares to 0.55 ± 0.06 nm for λ862. We also measure the vacuum rest-frame wavelength of λ864.8 to be λ0 = 864.53 ± 0.14 nm, smaller than previous estimates. / Conclusions. We find solid confirmation of the existence of the DIB around 864.8 nm based on an exploration of its correlation with λ862 and estimation of its FWHM. The DIB λ864.8 is very broad and shallow. That at λ862 correlates better with E(BP − RP) than λ864.8. The profiles of the two DIBs could strongly overlap with each other, which contributes to the skew of the λ862 profile