408 research outputs found
The star-formation history of the universe - an infrared perspective
A simple and versatile parameterized approach to the star formation history
allows a quantitative investigation of the constraints from far infrared and
submillimetre counts and background intensity measurements.
The models include four spectral components: infrared cirrus (emission from
interstellar dust), an M82-like starburst, an Arp220-like starburst and an AGN
dust torus. The 60 m luminosity function is determined for each chosen
rate of evolution using the PSCz redshift data for 15000 galaxies. The
proportions of each spectral type as a function of 60 m luminosity are
chosen for consistency with IRAS and SCUBA colour-luminosity relations, and
with the fraction of AGN as a function of luminosity found in 12 m
samples. The luminosity function for each component at any wavelength can then
be calculated from the assumed spectral energy distributions. With assumptions
about the optical seds corresponding to each component and, for the AGN
component, the optical and near infrared counts can be accurately modelled.
A good fit to the observed counts at 0.44, 2.2, 15, 60, 90, 175 and 850
m can be found with pure luminosity evolution in all 3 cosmological models
investigated: = 1, = 0.3 ( = 0), and
= 0.3, = 0.7.
All 3 models also give an acceptable fit to the integrated background
spectrum. Selected predictions of the models, for example redshift
distributions for each component at selected wavelengths and fluxes, are shown.
The total mass-density of stars generated is consistent with that observed,
in all 3 cosmological models.Comment: 20 pages, 25 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full details
of models can be found at http://astro.ic.ac.uk/~mrr/countmodel
Comparison of opioid prescribing by dentists in the United States and England
Importance: The United States consumes most of the opioids worldwide despite representing a small portion of the world\u27s population. Dentists are one of the most frequent US prescribers of opioids despite data suggesting that nonopioid analgesics are similarly effective for oral pain. While oral health and dentist use are generally similar between the United States and England, it is unclear how opioid prescribing by dentists varies between the 2 countries.
Objective: To compare opioid prescribing by dentists in the United States and England.
Design, Setting, and Participants: Cross-sectional study of prescriptions for opioids dispensed from outpatient pharmacies and health care settings between January 1 and December 31, 2016, by dentists in the United States and England. Data were analyzed from October 2018 to January 2019.
Exposures: Opioids prescribed by dentists.
Main Outcomes and Measures: Proportion and prescribing rates of opioid prescriptions.
Results: In 2016, the proportion of prescriptions written by US dentists that were for opioids was 37 times greater than the proportion written by English dentists. In all, 22.3% of US dental prescriptions were opioids (11.4 million prescriptions) compared with 0.6% of English dental prescriptions (28 082 prescriptions) (difference, 21.7%; 95% CI, 13.8%-32.1%; P \u3c .001). Dentists in the United States also had a higher number of opioid prescriptions per 1000 population (35.4 per 1000 US population [95% CI, 25.2-48.7 per 1000 population] vs 0.5 per 1000 England population [95% CI, 0.03-3.7 per 1000 population]) and number of opioid prescriptions per dentist (58.2 prescriptions per dentist [95% CI, 44.9-75.0 prescriptions per dentist] vs 1.2 prescriptions per dentist [95% CI, 0.2-5.6 prescriptions per dentist]). While the codeine derivative dihydrocodeine was the sole opioid prescribed by English dentists, US dentists prescribed a range of opioids containing hydrocodone (62.3%), codeine (23.2%), oxycodone (9.1%), and tramadol (4.8%). Dentists in the United States also prescribed long-acting opioids (0.06% of opioids prescribed by US dentists [6425 prescriptions]). Long-acting opioids were not prescribed by English dentists.
Conclusions and Relevance: This study found that in 2016, dentists in the United States prescribed opioids with significantly greater frequency than their English counterparts. Opioids with a high potential for abuse, such as oxycodone, were frequently prescribed by US dentists but not prescribed in England. These results illustrate how 1 source of opioids differs substantially in the United States vs England. To reduce dental opioid prescribing in the United States, dentists could adopt measures similar to those used in England, including national guidelines for treating dental pain that emphasize prescribing opioids conservatively
HST Imaging Polarimetry of the Gravitational Lens FSC10214+4724
We present imaging polarimetry of the extremely luminous, redshift 2.3 IRAS
source FSC10214+4724. The observations were obtained with HST's Faint Object
Camera in the F437M filter, which is free of strong emission lines. The 0.7
arcsec long arc is unresolved to 0.04 arcsec FWHM in the transverse direction,
and has an integrated polarization of 28 +/- 3 percent, in good agreement with
ground-based observations. The polarization position angle varies along the arc
by up to 35 deg. The overall position angle is 62 +/- 3 deg east of north. No
counterimage is detected to B = 27.5 mag (), giving an observed arc to
counterimage flux ratio greater than 250, considerably greater than the flux
ratio of 100 measured previously in the I-band. This implies that the
configuration of the object in the source plane at the B-band is different from
that at I-band, and/or that the lensing galaxy is dusty.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomical
Journal, February 199
Photometric redshifts in the SWIRE Survey
We present the SWIRE Photometric Redshift Catalogue, 1025119 redshifts of
unprecedented reliability and accuracy. Our method is based on fixed galaxy and
QSO templates applied to data at 0.36-4.5 mu, and on a set of 4 infrared
emission templates fitted to infrared excess data at 3.6-170 mu. The code
involves two passes through the data, to try to optimize recognition of AGN
dust tori. A few carefully justified priors are used and are the key to
supression of outliers. Extinction, A_V, is allowed as a free parameter. We use
a set of 5982 spectroscopic redshifts, taken from the literature and from our
own spectroscopic surveys, to analyze the performance of our method as a
function of the number of photometric bands used in the solution and the
reduced chi^2. For 7 photometric bands the rms value of
(z_{phot}-z_{spec})/(1+z_{spec}) is 3.5%, and the percentage of catastrophic
outliers is ~1%.
We discuss the redshift distributions at 3.6 and 24 mu. In individual fields,
structure in the redshift distribution corresponds to clusters which can be
seen in the spectroscopic redshift distribution. 10% of sources in the SWIRE
photometric redshift catalogue have z >2, and 4% have z>3, so this catalogue is
a huge resource for high redshift galaxies.
A key parameter for understanding the evolutionary status of infrared
galaxies is L_{ir}/L_{opt}, which can be interpreted as the specific
star-formation rate for starbursts. For dust tori around Type 1 AGN,
L_{tor}/L_{opt} is a measure of the torus covering factor and we deduce a mean
covering factor of 40%.Comment: 22 pages, 23 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Revised
28/2/08. Version with figures at full resolution at
http://astro.ic.ac.uk/~mrr/swirephotzcat/swirephotz5.pdf.g
A Video-based End-to-end Pipeline for Non-nutritive Sucking Action Recognition and Segmentation in Young Infants
We present an end-to-end computer vision pipeline to detect non-nutritive
sucking (NNS) -- an infant sucking pattern with no nutrition delivered -- as a
potential biomarker for developmental delays, using off-the-shelf baby monitor
video footage. One barrier to clinical (or algorithmic) assessment of NNS stems
from its sparsity, requiring experts to wade through hours of footage to find
minutes of relevant activity. Our NNS activity segmentation algorithm solves
this problem by identifying periods of NNS with high certainty -- up to 94.0\%
average precision and 84.9\% average recall across 30 heterogeneous 60 s clips,
drawn from our manually annotated NNS clinical in-crib dataset of 183 hours of
overnight baby monitor footage from 19 infants. Our method is based on an
underlying NNS action recognition algorithm, which uses spatiotemporal deep
learning networks and infant-specific pose estimation, achieving 94.9\%
accuracy in binary classification of 960 2.5 s balanced NNS vs. non-NNS clips.
Tested on our second, independent, and public NNS in-the-wild dataset, NNS
recognition classification reaches 92.3\% accuracy, and NNS segmentation
achieves 90.8\% precision and 84.2\% recall
Atheisms and the purification of faith
Philosophers of religion have distinguished between ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ atheism. This article considers further conceptions of atheism, especially the idea that atheism can facilitate a faith in God purified of idolatrous assumptions. After introducing Bultmann’s contention that a ‘conscious atheist’ can find something transcendent in the world, this contention is interpreted through reflection on Ricoeur’s claim that the atheisms of Nietzsche and Freud serve to mediate a transition to a purified faith – a faith involving heightened receptivity to agapeic love. The troubling question of what differentiates atheism from belief in God is then discussed in the light of Simone Weil’s meditations on God’s secret presence
The Cosmic Infrared Background: Measurements and Implications
The cosmic infrared background records much of the radiant energy released by
processes of structure formation that have occurred since the decoupling of
matter and radiation following the Big Bang. In the past few years, data from
the Cosmic Background Explorer mission provided the first measurements of this
background, with additional constraints coming from studies of the attenuation
of TeV gamma-rays. At the same time there has been rapid progress in resolving
a significant fraction of this background with the deep galaxy counts at
infrared wavelengths from the Infrared Space Observatory instruments and at
submillimeter wavelengths from the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array
instrument. This article reviews the measurements of the infrared background
and sources contributing to it, and discusses the implications for past and
present cosmic processes.Comment: 61 pages, incl. 9 figures, to be published in Annual Reviews of
Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2001, Vol. 3
Long-term effects of chronic light pollution on seasonal functions of European blackbirds (turdus merula)
Light pollution is known to affect important biological functions of wild animals, including daily and annual cycles. However, knowledge about long-term effects of chronic exposure to artificial light at night is still very limited. Here we present data on reproductive physiology, molt and locomotor activity during two-year cycles of European blackbirds (Turdus merula) exposed to either dark nights or 0.3 lux at night. As expected, control birds kept under dark nights exhibited two regular testicular and testosterone cycles during the two-year experiment. Control urban birds developed testes faster than their control rural conspecifics. Conversely, while in the first year blackbirds exposed to light at night showed a normal but earlier gonadal cycle compared to control birds, during the second year the reproductive system did not develop at all: both testicular size and testosterone concentration were at baseline levels in all birds. In addition, molt sequence in light-treated birds was more irregular than in control birds in both years. Analysis of locomotor activity showed that birds were still synchronized to the underlying light-dark cycle. We suggest that the lack of reproductive activity and irregular molt progression were possibly the results of i) birds being stuck in a photorefractory state and/or ii) chronic stress. Our data show that chronic low intensities of light at night can dramatically affect the reproductive system. Future studies are needed in order to investigate if and how urban animals avoid such negative impact and to elucidate the physiological mechanisms behind these profound long-term effects of artificial light at night. Finally we call for collaboration between scientists and policy makers to limit the impact of light pollution on animals and ecosystems
The Beginning and Evolution of the Universe
We review the current standard model for the evolution of the Universe from
an early inflationary epoch to the complex hierarchy of structure seen today.
We summarize and provide key references for the following topics: observations
of the expanding Universe; the hot early Universe and nucleosynthesis; theory
and observations of the cosmic microwave background; Big Bang cosmology;
inflation; dark matter and dark energy; theory of structure formation; the cold
dark matter model; galaxy formation; cosmological simulations; observations of
galaxies, clusters, and quasars; statistical measures of large-scale structure;
and measurement of cosmological parameters. We conclude with discussion of some
open questions in cosmology. This review is designed to provide a graduate
student or other new worker in the field an introduction to the cosmological
literature.Comment: 69 pages. Invited review article for Publications of the Astronomical
Society of the Pacific. Supplementary references, tables, and more concise
PDF file at http://www.physics.drexel.edu/univers
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