Defining and measuring health literacy: how can we profit from other literacy domains?

When the antecedents of health-promoting behavior are explored, the concept of health literacy is deemed a factor of major influence. Originally defined as reading, writing and numeracy skills in the health domain, health literacy is now considered a multidimensional concept. The ongoing discussion on health literacy reveals that no agreement exists about which dimensions to include in the concept. To contribute to the development of a consistent and parsimonious concept of health literacy, we conducted a critical review of concepts in other literacy domains. Our review was guided by two research questions: (i) Which dimensions are included in the concepts of other literacy domains? (ii) How can health literacy research profit from other literacy domains? Based on articles collected from PubMed, PsycINFO, Communication & Mass Media Complete, CINAHL, SAGE Full-Text Collection, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar as well as selected monographs and editions, we identified seven distinct dimensions. Some of the dimensions recur across all reviewed literacy domains and first attempts have been made to operationalize the dimensions. Expanding upon these dimensions, the paper discusses how they can prove useful for elaborating a consistent and parsimonious concept of health literacy and foster the development of a more holistic measur

Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer: Calibration of its Bright-source Mode

The Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) of the Spectral and Photometric Imaging REceiver (SPIRE) on board the ESA Herschel Space Observatory has two detector setting modes: (a) a nominal mode, which is optimized for observing moderately bright to faint astronomical targets, and (b) a bright-source mode recommended for sources significantly brighter than 500 Jy, within the SPIRE FTS bandwidth of 446.7-1544 GHz (or 194-671 microns in wavelength), which employs a reduced detector responsivity and out-of-phase analog signal amplifier/demodulator. We address in detail the calibration issues unique to the bright-source mode, describe the integration of the bright-mode data processing into the existing pipeline for the nominal mode, and show that the flux calibration accuracy of the bright-source mode is generally within 2% of that of the nominal mode, and that the bright-source mode is 3 to 4 times less sensitive than the nominal mode.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Experimental Astronom

Conormal distributions in the Shubin calculus of pseudodifferential operators

We characterize the Schwartz kernels of pseudodifferential operators of Shubin type by means of an FBI transform. Based on this we introduce as a generalization a new class of tempered distributions called Shubin conormal distributions. We study their transformation behavior, normal forms and microlocal properties.Comment: 23 page

Size and Structure of the Narrow-Line Region of Quasars

We have observed the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of the seven brightest radio-quiet PG (or BQS) quasars (z < 0.5) with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Linear-ramp filters were used to image the [OIII] lambda 5007 line emission with 0.0455-0.1 arcsec pixel resolution. We find that the NLRs are very compact with typical extents of 2-4 arcsec. Two quasars show compact filamentary structures similar to Seyfert NLRs. They may be related to radio outflows. Most interestingly, when including a sample of Seyfert galaxies observed with HST, we tentatively find that the size of the NLR is proportional to the square root of the [OIII] luminosity. This is comparable to the scaling found for the size of the broad-line region with continuum luminosity, which has been interpreted in terms of a constant photoionization parameter. The relation determined here connects the NLR of radio-quiet quasars and Seyferts over three orders of magnitude in [OIII] luminosity.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

On Liouville-type theorems for the 2D stationary MHD equations

We establish new Liouville-type theorems for the two-dimensional stationary magneto-hydrodynamic incompressible system assuming that the velocity and magnetic field have bounded Dirichlet integral. The key tool in our proof is observing that the stream function associated to the magnetic field satisfies a simple drift–diffusion equation for which a maximum principle is available

Computationally efficient solutions for tracking people with a mobile robot: an experimental evaluation of Bayesian filters

Modern service robots will soon become an essential part of modern society. As they have to move and act in human environments, it is essential for them to be provided with a fast and reliable tracking system that localizes people in the neighbourhood. It is therefore important to select the most appropriate filter to estimate the position of these persons. This paper presents three efficient implementations of multisensor-human tracking based on different Bayesian estimators: Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) and Sampling Importance Resampling (SIR) particle filter. The system implemented on a mobile robot is explained, introducing the methods used to detect and estimate the position of multiple people. Then, the solutions based on the three filters are discussed in detail. Several real experiments are conducted to evaluate their performance, which is compared in terms of accuracy, robustness and execution time of the estimation. The results show that a solution based on the UKF can perform as good as particle filters and can be often a better choice when computational efficiency is a key issue

Gravitational-wave cosmology with dark sirens: state of the art and perspectives for 3G detectors

A joint fit of the mass and redshift distributions of the population of Binary Black Holes detected with Gravitational-Wave observations can be used to obtain constraints on the Hubble parameter and on deviations from General Relativity in the propagation of Gravitational Waves. We first present applications of this technique to the latest catalog of Gravitational-Wave events, focusing on the comparison of different parametrizations for the source-frame mass distribution of Black Hole Binaries. We find that models with more than one feature are favourite by the data, as suggested by population studies, even when varying the cosmology. Then, we discuss perspectives for the use of this technique with third generation Gravitational-Wave detectors, exploiting the recently developed Fisher information matrix Python code GWFAST.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Contribution to the ICHEP 2022 conference proceeding

The Phase Diagram of Correlated Electrons in a Lattice of Berry Molecules

A model for correlated electrons in a lattice with local additional spin--1 degrees of freedom inducing constrained hopping, is studied both in the low density limit and at quarter filling. We show that in both 1D and 2D two particles form a bound state even in presence of a repulsive U<U_c. A picture of a dilute Bose gas, leading to off-diagonal long range order (LRO) in 2D (quasi-LRO in 1D), is supported by quantitative calculations in 1D which allow for a determination of the phase diagram.Comment: 7 pages + 2 ps figures, published versio

Language Delay in Patients with CLN2 Disease: Could It Support Earlier Diagnosis?

Neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 2 (CLN2 disease) is a rare pediatric disorder associated with rapid neurodegeneration, and premature death in adolescence. An effective enzyme replacement therapy (cerliponase alfa) has been approved that can reduce this predictable neurological decline. The nonspecific early symptoms of CLN2 disease frequently delay diagnosis and appropriate management. Seizures are generally recognized as the first presenting symptom of CLN2 disease, but emerging data show that language delay may precede this. An improved understanding of language deficits in the earliest stage of CLN2 disease may support the early identification of patients. In this article, CLN2 disease experts examine how language development is affected by CLN2 disease in their clinical practices. The authors' experiences highlighted the timings of first words and first use of sentences, and language stagnation as key features of language deficits in CLN2 disease, and how deficits in language may be an earlier sign of the disease than seizures. Potential challenges in identifying early language deficits include assessing patients with other complex needs, and recognizing that a child's language abilities are not within normal parameters given the variability of language development in young children. CLN2 disease should be considered in children presenting with language delay and/or seizures to facilitate earlier diagnosis and access to treatment that can significantly reduce morbidity