The measurement errors in the Swift-UVOT and XMM-OM

The probability of photon measurement in some photon counting instrumentation, such as the Optical Monitor on the XMM-Newton satellite, and the UVOT on the Swift satellite, does not follow a Poisson distribution due to the detector characteristics, but a Binomial distribution. For a single-pixel approximation, an expression was derived for the incident countrate as a function of the measured count rate by Fordham, Moorhead and Galbraith (2000). We show that the measured countrate error is binomial, and extend their formalism to derive the error in the incident count rate. The error on the incident count rate at large count rates is larger than the Poisson-error of the incident count rate.Comment: 4 pages, 2 postscript figures, submitted to MNRA

Does current UK research address priorities in palliative and end-of-life care?

The Palliative and end of life care Priority Setting Partnership uncovered 83 unanswered research questions. Florence Todd Fordham, Bridget Candy, Stevie McMillan and Sabine Best show that, as current UK research starts to address some of these questions, UK open grant data have the potential to encourage collaboratio

Epidemiology of injuries in adventure racing athletes

OBJECTIVES: To assess the demographics and training characteristics of adventure racing athletes in the United Kingdom, the prevalence and anatomical distribution of hazardous encounter, and overuse injury in this population, and the effects these injuries have on training. METHODS: A retrospective training and injury questionnaire for the previous 18 months was distributed to 300 adventure racing athletes at two national race meetings. The definition of an injury was "any musculoskeletal problem causing a stop in training for at least one day, reduction in training mileage, taking of medicine, or seeking of medical aid." RESULTS: The data were derived from the responses of 223 athletes. Advanced level athletes did 11 (4) sessions and 17 (8) hours of training a week (mean (SD)). An injury was reported in the previous 18 months by 73% of the respondents. The most common site of acute injury was the ankle (23%) and of chronic/overuse injury, the knee (30%), followed by the lower back, shin, and Achilles tendon (12% each). There were significant correlations (p<0.01) between the hours spent cycling per week and number of acute injuries, and between the number of days off per week and number of chronic/overuse injuries. Injuries resulted in an average of 23 days training cessation or reduction. CONCLUSIONS: Acute injuries were sustained mainly as a result of the nature of the terrain over which athletes train and compete. In overuse injuries lack of adequate rest days was a significant contributing factor. Only a small proportion of training time was spent developing flexibility and core stability

A feminist vision for transformative change to disaster risk reduction policies and practices

Gender has received increased attention in disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies and practices over the past three decades. However, a critical analysis raises a number of questions: has the attention to gender brought transformative change to the lives of people, especially women and sexual minorities in all their diversity? To what extent has the inclusion of a gender perspective in DRR challenged the root causes of vulnerability and marginalization? Do the current gender sensitive DRR policies and practices have transformative potential? In this paper, we explore some of these questions with particular reference to the recent Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Act 2017 and current DRR practices in Nepal in which gender has been included. We present findings from three research projects, undertaken between 2016 and 2019 in six locations in Nepal. These comprised 105 individual interviews, 11 group interviews and 3 focus group discussions (FGDs) with internally displaced women; pregnant and newly delivered women; health and community workers; policy makers, political leaders and organisations working on DRR. We argue that, despite increased attention to gender, current DRR policies and practices do little to challenge existing, unequal social and institutional structures; instead, they accommodate the gender status quo. We suggest that in order for transformative social change to occur, we require a transformative vision; one that allows us to see the biases and problems within the current DRR policies and practices and allows us to imagine our future differently. A feminist vision offers that possibility

Minimal lenght elements of Thompson's groups F(p)

We describe a method for determining the minimal length of elements in the generalized Thompson's groups F(p). We compute the length of an element by constructing a tree pair diagram for the element, classifying the nodes of the tree and summing associated weights from the pairs of node classifications. We use this method to effectively find minimal length representatives of an element

Livelihood impacts of flash floods in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh

This article aims to understand local views and understandings of livelihood impacts of flash floods, and how to tackle the challenges. The work is completed through case studies of two villages in Cox’s Bazar District in south-east Bangladesh, Manirjhil and Chotojamchori. Based in theoretical understandings from disaster research of how underlying conditions rather than hazards cause disasters, this empirical study combined household surveys and participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques for collecting field data. The results detail local perspectives of underlying conditions—namely poverty, inequity, precarious livelihoods, and few contingency options—impacting livelihoods, especially highlighting food, water, disease, and migration, all of which link directly to livelihoods. A significant concern is the need to take out loans which can contribute to continuing poverty. Suggested strategies for dealing with flash flood impacts were based in local contexts and did not always account for broader remits, such as the deep-seated gendered nature of societal roles in Bangladesh or power and governance structures within the Bangladeshi context

Polyclonal Mycobacterium Avium Infections in Patients with AIDS: Variations in Antimicrobial Susceptibilities of Different Strains of M. Avium Isolated from the Same Patient.

Broth microdilution MICs were determined for pairs of strains isolated from five AIDS patients with polyclonal Mycobacterium avium infection. Four (80%) of the five patients were infected simultaneously with strains having different antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. These findings have implications for the interpretation of susceptibility data in M. avium prophylaxis and treatment trials

MANTRA: Improving Knowledge of Maternal Health, Neonatal Health, and Geohazards in Women in Rural Nepal Using a Mobile Serious Game

Serious games, conveying educational knowledge rather than merely entertainment, are a rapidly expanding research domain for cutting-edge educational technology. Digital interventions like serious games are great opportunities to overcome challenges in low-and-middle-income countries that limit access to health information, such as social barriers like low-literacy and gender. MANTRA: Increasing maternal and child health resilience before, during and after disasters using mobile technology in Nepal takes on these challenges with a novel digital health intervention; a serious mobile game aimed at vulnerable low-literacy female audiences in rural Nepal. The serious game teaches 28 learning objectives of danger signs in geohazards, maternal, and neonatal health to improve knowledge and self-assessment of common conditions and risks to inform healthcare-seeking behavior. Evaluations consisted of recruiting 35 end users to participate in a pre-test assessment, playing the game, post-test assessment, and focus groups to elicit qualitative feedback. Assessments analyzed knowledge gain in two ways; by learning objective with McNemar tests for each learning objective, and by participant scores with paired t-tests of overall scores and by module. Results of assessments of knowledge gain by learning objective (McNemar tests) indicate participants had sufficient prior knowledge to correctly interpret and respond to 26% of pictograms (coded AA), which is a desirable result although without the possibility of improvement through the intervention. The geohazard module had greatest impact as 16% of responses showed knowledge gain (coded BA). The two most successful learning objectives showing statistically significant positive change were evidence of rockfalls and small cracks in the ground (p = < 0.05). Assessment of knowledge gain by participant scores (paired t-tests) showed the 35 participants averaged a 7.7 point improvement (p < 0.001) in the assessment (28 learning objectives). Average change in knowledge of subdivided module scores (each module normalized to 100 points for comparison) was greatest in the geohazard module (9.5 points, p < 0.001), then maternal health (7.4 points, p = 0.0067), and neonatal health (6.0 points, p = 0.013). This evaluation demonstrated that carefully designed digital health interventions with pictograms co-authored by experts and users can teach complex health and geohazard situations. Significant knowledge gain was demonstrated for several learning objectives while those with non-significant or negative change will be re-designed to effectively convey information