Low Vision Services Provision throughout NHS Trusts in the UK

Background/Aims: The aim of this study was to understand the picture of low vision service provision within NHS Trusts in the United Kingdom, for children and adults. Method: A survey was distributed to all members of the British and Irish Orthoptic Society (BIOS) and to all Eye Clinic Liaison Officers (ECLOs) through the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB). The survey was also directly emailed to Orthoptic contacts of all 238 Trusts/Health Boards, which covered the four nations of the United Kingdom. The survey asked whether their Trust had a clinical low vision service, which professions were involved in leading and working within it, where it was based, and whether provision was offered to children, adults, or both. Results: In the United Kingdom (UK), 117 out of 238 (49%) Trusts responded. Of these responders, 94% had a level of Trust-delivered low vision service provision; 90% had services for adults; 83% had services for children; and 79% had services for both adults and children. Service accessibility for patients of all ages had regional and national variation. Conclusion: Significant variation was found in low vision service provision throughout the UK, with some regions having no NHS-delivered provision for either children, adults, or both. This calls for further research to gain a more comprehensive understanding of low vision service provision and remove inequalities in provision, access and resourcing, aiming to ensure equitable access for all

Digital Equity in the time of COVID-19: The Access Issue

This report is a part of a series of reports on digital equity in the time of COVID-19 written by members of the MERC SY20 study team. MERC launched the SY20 project to provide rapid response, iterative research to help address immediate and enduring needs by school divisions in metropolitan Richmond. The project has the following goals: (1) To convene conversations between scholars and practitioners on critical topics in public education relevant to the moment, (2) To share examples of local efforts that illustrate innovation and best practice, (3) To encourage community engagement and dialogue on our work through broad dissemination

Digital Equity in the Time of COVID: Student Use of Technology for Equitable Outcomes

This issue brief is the third and final in a series published by the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) addressing digital equity in K-12 schools. It examines research regarding students’ use of and outcomes related to technology. Research finds that inequities exist in use and outcomes for students based on gender, language, ability, race, SES and other sociocultural factors. Based on these inequities, theoretical and practical recommendations are discussed

Dark Matter in the Galaxy Cluster CL J1226+3332 at Z=0.89

We present a weak-lensing analysis of the galaxy cluster CL J1226+3332 at z=0.89 using Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys images. The cluster is the hottest (>10 keV), most X-ray luminous system at z>0.6 known to date. The relaxed X-ray morphology, as well as its high temperature, is unusual at such a high redshift. Our mass reconstruction shows that on a large scale the dark matter distribution is consistent with a relaxed system with no significant substructures. However, on a small scale the cluster core is resolved into two mass clumps highly correlated with the cluster galaxy distribution. The dominant mass clump lies close to the brightest cluster galaxy whereas the other less massive clump is located ~40" (~310 kpc) to the southwest. Although this secondary mass clump does not show an excess in the X-ray surface brightness, the gas temperature of the region is much higher (12~18 keV) than those of the rest. We propose a scenario in which the less massive system has already passed through the main cluster and the X-ray gas has been stripped during this passage. The elongation of the X-ray peak toward the southwestern mass clump is also supportive of this possibility. We measure significant tangential shears out to the field boundary (~1.5 Mpc), which are well described by an Navarro-Frenk-White profile with a concentration parameter of c200=2.7+-0.3 and a scale length of rs=78"+-19" (~600 kpc) with chi^2/d.o.f=1.11. Within the spherical volume r200=1.6 Mpc, the total mass of the cluster becomes M(r<r200)=(1.4+-0.2) x 10^15 solar mass. Our weak-lensing analysis confirms that CL1226+3332 is indeed the most massive cluster known to date at z>0.6.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Live Well, Eat Well, Be Active With Diabetes Curriculum Improves Type 2 Diabetes Management

Type 2 diabetes is a complex disease with several modifiable lifestyle factors. The Extension ‘Live well, Eat well, be Active with Diabetes’ curriculum provides four 90-minute lessons teaching individuals to live well, eat well, and be active with diabetes. Fourteen Extension educators implemented and evaluated the curriculum with 107 participants. Participants reported the program helped them feel better able to take care of their health. We observed significant differences in participants’ retrospective pre and post ‘Live well,’ ‘Eat well’ and ‘be Active’ total scores. Extension has a unique opportunity to educate individuals so they may better manage their diabetes

The impact of mental health recovery narratives on recipients experiencing mental health problems: Qualitative analysis and change model.

BACKGROUND: Mental health recovery narratives are stories of recovery from mental health problems. Narratives may impact in helpful and harmful ways on those who receive them. The objective of this paper is to develop a change model identifying the range of possible impacts and how they occur. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with adults with experience of mental health problems and recovery (n = 77). Participants were asked to share a mental health recovery narrative and to describe the impact of other people's recovery narratives on their own recovery. A change model was generated through iterative thematic analysis of transcripts. RESULTS: Change is initiated when a recipient develops a connection to a narrator or to the events descripted in their narrative. Change is mediated by the recipient recognising experiences shared with the narrator, noticing the achievements or difficulties of the narrator, learning how recovery happens, or experiencing emotional release. Helpful outcomes of receiving recovery narratives are connectedness, validation, hope, empowerment, appreciation, reference shift and stigma reduction. Harmful outcomes are a sense of inadequacy, disconnection, pessimism and burden. Impact is positively moderated by the perceived authenticity of the narrative, and can be reduced if the recipient is experiencing a crisis. CONCLUSIONS: Interventions that incorporate the use of recovery narratives, such as peer support, anti-stigma campaigns and bibliotherapy, can use the change model to maximise benefit and minimise harms from narratives. Interventions should incorporate a diverse range of narratives available through different mediums to enable a range of recipients to connect with and benefit from this material. Service providers using recovery narratives should preserve authenticity so as to maximise impact, for example by avoiding excessive editing

JWST and ALMA discern the assembly of structural and obscured components in a high-redshift starburst galaxy

We present observations and analysis of the starburst, PACS-819, at z=1.45 ($M_*=10^{10.7}$ M$_{ \odot}$), using high-resolution ($0^{\prime \prime}.1$; 0.8 kpc) ALMA and multi-wavelength JWST images from the COSMOS-Web program. Dissimilar to HST/ACS images in the rest-frame UV, the redder NIRCam and MIRI images reveal a smooth central mass concentration and spiral-like features, atypical for such an intense starburst. Through dynamical modeling of the CO J=5--4 emission with ALMA, PACS-819 is rotation-dominated thus has a disk-like nature. However, kinematic anomalies in CO and asymmetric features in the bluer JWST bands (e.g., F150W) support a more disturbed nature likely due to interactions. The JWST imaging further enables us to map the distribution of stellar mass and dust attenuation, thus clarifying the relationships between different structural components, not discernable in the previous HST images. The CO J = 5 -- 4 and FIR dust continuum emission are co-spatial with a heavily-obscured starbursting core (<1 kpc) which is partially surrounded by much less obscured star-forming structures including a prominent arc, possibly a tidally-distorted dwarf galaxy, and a clump, either a sign of an ongoing violent disk instability or a recently accreted low-mass satellite. With spatially-resolved maps, we find a high molecular gas fraction in the central area reaching $\sim3$ ($M_{\text{gas}}$/$M_*$) and short depletion times ($M_{\text{gas}}/SFR\sim$ 120 Myrs) across the entire system. These observations provide insights into the complex nature of starbursts in the distant universe and underscore the wealth of complementary information from high-resolution observations with both ALMA and JWST.Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, Submitted to Ap

Writing in Britain and Ireland, c. 400 to c. 800

No abstract available

COSMOS-Web: Intrinsically Luminous z≳\gtrsim10 Galaxy Candidates Test Early Stellar Mass Assembly

We report the discovery of 15 exceptionally luminous $10\lesssim z\lesssim14$ candidate galaxies discovered in the first 0.28 deg$^2$ of JWST/NIRCam imaging from the COSMOS-Web Survey. These sources span rest-frame UV magnitudes of $-20.5>M_{\rm UV}>-22$, and thus constitute the most intrinsically luminous $z\gtrsim10$ candidates identified by JWST to-date. Selected via NIRCam imaging with Hubble ACS/F814W, deep ground-based observations corroborate their detection and help significantly constrain their photometric redshifts. We analyze their spectral energy distributions using multiple open-source codes and evaluate the probability of low-redshift solutions; we conclude that 12/15 (80%) are likely genuine $z\gtrsim10$ sources and 3/15 (20%) likely low-redshift contaminants. Three of our $z\sim12$ candidates push the limits of early stellar mass assembly: they have estimated stellar masses $\sim5\times10^{9}\,M_\odot$, implying an effective stellar baryon fraction of $\epsilon_{\star}\sim0.2-0.5$, where $\epsilon_{\star}\equiv M_{\star}/(f_{b}M_{halo})$. The assembly of such stellar reservoirs is made possible due to rapid, burst-driven star formation on timescales $<$100\,Myr where the star-formation rate may far outpace the growth of the underlying dark matter halos. This is supported by the similar volume densities inferred for $M_\star\sim10^{10}\,M_\odot$ galaxies relative to $M_\star\sim10^{9}\,M_\odot$ -- both about $10^{-6}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ -- implying they live in halos of comparable mass. At such high redshifts, the duty cycle for starbursts would be of order unity, which could cause the observed change in the shape of the UVLF from a double powerlaw to Schechter at $z\approx8$. Spectroscopic redshift confirmation and ensuing constraints of their masses will be critical to understanding how, and if, such early massive galaxies push the limits of galaxy formation in $\Lambda$CDM.Comment: 30 pages, 9 figures; ApJ submitte