Beyond the cross roads: the changing face of midwifery regulation

In 2010 I wrote an article for MIDIRS Midwifery Digest: ‘Is midwifery at a cross roads? Questioning the need for Midwives rules and standards’. I posed the question: Do midwives still need a set of practice rules to provide them with support in ensuring that women, babies and their families remain safe in their care? (Way 2010)

Can Self-Organizing Maps accurately predict photometric redshifts?

We present an unsupervised machine learning approach that can be employed for estimating photometric redshifts. The proposed method is based on a vector quantization approach called Self--Organizing Mapping (SOM). A variety of photometrically derived input values were utilized from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's Main Galaxy Sample, Luminous Red Galaxy, and Quasar samples along with the PHAT0 data set from the PHoto-z Accuracy Testing project. Regression results obtained with this new approach were evaluated in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) to estimate the accuracy of the photometric redshift estimates. The results demonstrate competitive RMSE and outlier percentages when compared with several other popular approaches such as Artificial Neural Networks and Gaussian Process Regression. SOM RMSE--results (using $\Delta$z=z$_{phot}$--z$_{spec}$) for the Main Galaxy Sample are 0.023, for the Luminous Red Galaxy sample 0.027, Quasars are 0.418, and PHAT0 synthetic data are 0.022. The results demonstrate that there are non--unique solutions for estimating SOM RMSEs. Further research is needed in order to find more robust estimation techniques using SOMs, but the results herein are a positive indication of their capabilities when compared with other well-known methods.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PAS

Humanising midwifery care.

Since the recent publication of the Francis Report (2013), providing care that is kind and compassionate is high on the agenda of all NHS services including maternity. This article introduces the humanising values framework that explores aspects of what it is to be human and offers practical examples of how it can be incorporated into midwifery care

Habitable Climate Scenarios for Proxima Centauri b With a Dynamic Ocean

The nearby exoplanet Proxima Centauri b will be a prime future target for characterization, despite questions about its retention of water. Climate models with static oceans suggest that an Earth-like Proxima b could harbor a small dayside region of surface liquid water at fairly warm temperatures despite its weak instellation. We present the first 3-dimensional climate simulations of Proxima b with a dynamic ocean. We find that an ocean-covered Proxima b could have a much broader area of surface liquid water but at much colder temperatures than previously suggested, due to ocean heat transport and depression of the freezing point by salinity. Elevated greenhouse gas concentrations do not necessarily produce more open ocean area because of possible dynamic regime transitions. For an evolutionary path leading to a highly saline present ocean, Proxima b could conceivably be an inhabited, mostly open ocean planet dominated by halophilic life. For an ocean planet in 3:2 spin-orbit resonance, a permanent tropical waterbelt exists for moderate eccentricity. Simulations of Proxima Centauri b may also be a model for the habitability of planets receiving similar instellation from slightly cooler or warmer stars, e.g., in the TRAPPIST-1, LHS 1140, GJ 273, and GJ 3293 systems.Comment: Submitted to Astrobiology; 38 pages, 12 figures, 5 table