Direct Observational Test Rules Out Small MgII Absorbers

Recent observations suggest the incidence of strong intervening MgII absorption systems along the line-of-sight to gamma ray burst (GRB) afterglows is significantly higher than expected from analogous quasar sightlines. One possible explanation is a geometric effect, arising because MgII absorbers only partially cover the quasar continuum regions, in which case MgII absorbers must be considerably smaller than previous estimates. We investigate the production of abnormal absorption profiles by partial coverage and conclude that the lack of any known anomalous profiles in observed systems, whilst constraining, cannot on its own rule out patchy MgII absorbers. In a separate test, we look for differences in the distribution function of MgII equivalent widths over quasar continuum regions and CIII] emission lines. We show that these anomalies should be observable in any scenario where MgII absorbers are very small, but they are not present in the data. We conclude that models invoking small MgII cloudlets to explain the excess of absorbers seen towards GRBs are ruled out.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. 5 pages, 2 figure

Online Mindfulness Training Increases Well-Being, Trait Emotional Intelligence, and Workplace Competency Ratings: A Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial

A randomized waitlist-controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of an online 8-week mindfulness-based training program in a sample of adults employed fulltime at a Fortune 100 company in the United States. Baseline measures were collected in both intervention and control groups. Following training, the intervention group (N = 37) showed statistically significant increases in resilience and positive mood, and significant decreases in stress and negative mood. There were no reported improvements in the wait-list control group (N = 65). Trait mindfulness and emotional intelligence (EI) were also assessed. Following the intervention mindfulness intervention participants reported increases in trait mindfulness and increases on all trait EI facets with the exception of empathy. The control group did not report any positive changes in these variables, and reported reductions in resilience and increases in negative mood. Finally, both self and colleague ratings of workplace competencies were collected in the intervention group only and provided preliminary evidence that mindfulness training enhanced performance on key leadership competencies including competencies related to decisiveness and creativity. The present study demonstrates the effectiveness of an online-based mindfulness training program for enhancing well-being, self-perceptions of emotional intelligence, and workplace performance

Improving kidney care for people with severe mental health difficulties: a thematic analysis of twenty-two healthcare providers’ perspectives

IntroductionPeople with severe mental health difficulties (SMHDs) and concurrent kidney disease have less access to quality kidney care and worse clinical outcomes. Our research investigates the barriers and facilitators to effective kidney care for people with SMHDs, and how care might be improved for this underserved population.MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews with twenty-two physical (n = 14) and mental (n = 8) healthcare professionals with experience working with people with SMHDs and concurrent kidney disease. Interview data were analysed and interpreted using reflexive thematic analysis.ResultsFour themes were generated from the data: 1. “It’s about understanding their limitations and challenges, without limiting their rights” describes how some people with SMHDs need additional support when accessing kidney care due to challenges with their mental state, motivation, cognitive difficulties, or mistrust of the healthcare system. 2. “There are people falling through the cracks” describes how the separation of physical and mental healthcare, combined with under-resourcing and understaffing, results in poorer outcomes for people with SMHDs. 3. “Psychiatry is a black spot in our continuing medical education” describes how many renal healthcare providers have limited confidence in their understanding of mental health and their ability to provide care for people with SMHDs. 4. “When they present to a busy emergency department with a problem, the staff tend to go ‘…psych patient”” describes how stigma towards people with SMHDs can negatively impact quality of care.ConclusionHealthcare professionals accounts’ describe how people with SMHDs and kidney disease can have favourable outcomes if they have appropriate hospital, community and social supports. Findings indicate that effective management of kidney disease for people with SMHDs requires integrated physical and mental health care, which takes an individualised “whole person” approach to addressing the interaction between kidney disease and mental health

Visualization of Data for Ambient Assisted Living Services

Ambient assisted living (AAL) services that provide support for people to remain in their homes are increasingly being used in healthcare systems around the world. Typically, these ambient assisted living services provide additional information though location-awareness, presence-awareness, and context-awareness capabilities, arising from the prolific use of telecommunications devices including sensors and actuators in the home of the person receiving care. In addition there is a need to provide abstract information, in context, to local and remote stakeholders. There are many different viewing options utilizing converged networks and the resulting explosion in data and information has resulted in a new problem, as these new ambient assisted living services struggle to convey meaningful information to different groups of end users. The article discusses visualization of data from the perspective of the needs of the differing end user groups, and discusses how algorithms are required to contextualize and convey information across location and time. In order to illustrate the issues, current work on nighttime AAL services for people with dementia is described

Impact of microbial activity on the leaching of soluble N forms in soil

The hydrological transport of low-molecular weight organic nitrogen (LMWON) compounds has received little attention in the literature, particularly relative to inorganic nitrogen (N), with less attention given to the decoupling of the carbon (C) and N cycles following rainfall events. We determined the impacts of the soil biota on the transport of N compounds in a loam soil, using 15N and 13C to trace the vertical transport of 15N13C-urea, 15N13C-amino acids, 15NO3, and 15NH4 through the soil profile, following simulated rainfall events. This research has demonstrated that biotic assimilation leads to rapid decoupling of the C and N cycles during leaching, with C transport limited to the soil surface (< 2 cm), whereas N which was stored within the soil profile during a single rainfall event could be remobilised and leached (a further 2–6 cm) following an additional rainfall event

Vitamin D metabolites are associated with musculoskeletal injury in young adults: a prospective cohort study.

The relationship between vitamin D metabolites and lower body (pelvis and lower limb) overuse injury is unclear. In a prospective cohort study, we investigated the association between vitamin D metabolites and incidence of lower body overuse musculoskeletal and bone stress injury in young adults undergoing initial military training during all seasons. In 1637 men and 530 women (age, 22.6 ± 7.5 years; BMI, 24.0 ± 2.6 kg∙m−2; 94.3% white ethnicity), we measured serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) and 24,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (24,25(OH)2D) by high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) by immunoassay during week 1 of training. We examined whether the relationship between 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D:24,25(OH)2D ratio was associated with overuse injury. During 12 weeks training, 21.0% sustained ≥1 overuse musculoskeletal injury, and 5.6% sustained ≥1 bone stress injury. After controlling for sex, BMI, 2.4 km run time, smoking, bone injury history, and Army training course (Officer, standard, or Infantry), lower body overuse musculoskeletal injury incidence was higher for participants within the second lowest versus highest quartile of 24,25(OH)2D (OR: 1.62 [95%CI 1.13–2.32; P = 0.009]) and lowest versus highest cluster of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D:24,25(OH)2D (OR: 6.30 [95%CI 1.89–21.2; P = 0.003]). Lower body bone stress injury incidence was higher for participants within the lowest versus highest quartile of 24,25(OH)2D (OR: 4.02 [95%CI 1.82–8.87; P < 0.001]) and lowest versus highest cluster of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D:24,25(OH)2D (OR: 22.08 [95%CI 3.26–149.4; P = 0.001]), after controlling for the same covariates. Greater conversion of 25(OH)D to 24,25(OH)2D, relative to 1,25(OH)2D (i.e., low 1,25(OH)2D:24,25(OH)2D), and higher serum 24,25(OH)2D were associated with a lower incidence of lower body overuse musculoskeletal and bone stress injury. Serum 24,25(OH)2D may have a role in preventing overuse injury in young adults undertaking arduous physical training

PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF SPLASH EFFECT ON HIGH WIND C-BAND HH-POL MODEL FUNCTION

The National Research Council Decadal Survey [1] identified a need for a future mission that would provide accurate real-time observations of ocean wind vectors from calm to tropical cyclone wind conditions with and without presence of rain. Tasked by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) developed a future scatterometer design that would leverage its success on the heritage of QuikSCAT but would provide more accurate measurements under all weather conditions through use of Ku-and C-band coincident measurements of the ocean surface. To design a cost effective instrument for all weather operations from space the existing risks need to be mitigated. The work described in this paper attempts to validate results reported at hurricane strength winds i

Evidence for Reionization at z ~ 6: Detection of a Gunn-Peterson Trough in a z=6.28 Quasar

We present moderate resolution Keck spectroscopy of quasars at z=5.82, 5.99 and 6.28, discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We find that the Ly Alpha absorption in the spectra of these quasars evolves strongly with redshift. To z~5.7, the Ly Alpha absorption evolves as expected from an extrapolation from lower redshifts. However, in the highest redshift object, SDSSp J103027.10+052455.0 (z=6.28), the average transmitted flux is 0.0038+-0.0026 times that of the continuum level over 8450 A < lambda < 8710 A (5.95<z(abs)<6.16), consistent with zero flux. Thus the flux level drops by a factor of >150, and is consistent with zero flux in the Ly Alpha forest region immediately blueward of the Ly Alpha emission line, compared with a drop by a factor of ~10 at z(abs)~5.3. A similar break is seen at Ly Beta; because of the decreased oscillator strength of this transition, this allows us to put a considerably stronger limit, tau(eff) > 20, on the optical depth to Ly Alpha absorption at z=6. This is a clear detection of a complete Gunn-Peterson trough, caused by neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium. Even a small neutral hydrogen fraction in the intergalactic medium would result in an undetectable flux in the Ly Alpha forest region. Therefore, the existence of the Gunn-Peterson trough by itself does not indicate that the quasar is observed prior to the reionization epoch. However, the fast evolution of the mean absorption in these high-redshift quasars suggests that the mean ionizing background along the line of sight to this quasar has declined significantly from z~5 to 6, and the universe is approaching the reionization epoch at z~6.Comment: Revised version (2001 Sep 4) accepted by the Astronomical Journal (minor changes

Optical Intraday Variability Studies of Ten Low Energy Peaked Blazars

We have carried out optical (R band) intraday variability (IDV) monitoring of a sample of ten bright low energy peaked blazars (LBLs). Forty photometric observations, of an average of ~ 4 hours each, were made between 2008 September and 2009 June using two telescopes in India. Measurements with good signal to noise ratios were typically obtained within 1-3 minutes, allowing the detection of weak, fast variations using N-star differential photometry. We employed both structure function and discrete correlation function analysis methods to estimate any dominant timescales of variability and found that in most of the cases any such timescales were longer than the duration of the observation. The calculated duty cycle of IDV in LBLs during our observing run is ~ 52%, which is low compared to many earlier studies; however, the relatively short periods for which each source was observed can probably explain this difference. We briefly discuss possible emission mechanisms for the observed variability.Comment: 20 Pages, 9 Figures, 4 Tables, accepted for publication in MNRA