Constraints and Reality Conditions in the Ashtekar Formulation of General Relativity

We show how to treat the constraints and reality conditions in the $SO(3)$-ADM (Ashtekar) formulation of general relativity, for the case of a vacuum spacetime with a cosmological constant. We clarify the difference between the reality conditions on the metric and on the triad. Assuming the triad reality condition, we find a new variable, allowing us to solve the gauge constraint equations and the reality conditions simultaneously.Comment: LaTeX file, 12 pages, no figures; to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

The risk of cancer in primary care patients with hypercalcaemia: a cohort study using electronic records.

PublishedJournal ArticleBACKGROUND: The risk of cancer with hypercalcaemia in primary care is unknown. METHODS: This was a cohort study using calcium results in patients aged ⩾40 years in a primary care electronic data set. Diagnoses of cancer in the following year were identified. RESULTS: Participants (54 267) had calcium results: 1674 (3%) were ⩾2.6 mmol l(-1). Hypercalcaemia was strongly associated with cancer, especially in males: OR 2.92, 95% CI 2.17-3.93, P=<0.001; positive predictive value (PPV) 11.5%; females: OR 1.86, 95% CI 1.39-2.50, P<0.001: PPV 4.1%. CONCLUSIONS: Hypercalcaemia is strongly associated with cancer in primary care, with men at most risk, despite hypercalcaemia being more common in women

Crustal Accretion in the Gulf of California: An Intermediaterate Spreading Axis

An important objective of Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 65 was to study crustal accretion at an ocean ridge axis with an intermediate-spreading rate for comparison with previously studied sections displaying slowand fast-spreading rates. The southern Gulf of California was selected for this purpose because the basement displays high seismic velocities (comparable to those observed for Cretaceous basement in the western North Atlantic) and high ambient sedimentation rates, which facilitated penetration of zero-age basement. Four sites were drilled, forming an axial transect immediately south of the Tamayo Fracture Zone (Figs. 1 and 2) and providing a series of characteristic sections into the crust. This chapter attempts to provide a brief synthesis of the results from Leg 65, focusing particularly on the lithology, geochemistry, and paleomagnetic properties of the cored basement material. From these data, we present an interpretation of the processes of magmatic evolution and crustal accretion occurring at the Gulf of California spreading axis

Salinity from Space Unlocks Satellite-Based Assessment of Ocean Acidification

Approximately a quarter of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that we emit into the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean. This oceanic uptake of CO2 leads to a change in marine carbonate chemistry resulting in a decrease of seawater pH and carbonate ion concentration, a process commonly called “Ocean Acidification”. Salinity data are key for assessing the marine carbonate system, and new space-based salinity measurements will enable the development of novel space-based ocean acidification assess- ment. Recent studies have highlighted the need to develop new in situ technology for monitoring ocean acidification, but the potential capabilities of space-based measurements remain largely untapped. Routine measurements from space can provide quasi-synoptic, reproducible data for investigating processes on global scales; they may also be the most efficient way to monitor the ocean surface. As the carbon cycle is dominantly controlled by the balance between the biological and solubility carbon pumps, innovative methods to exploit existing satellite sea surface temperature and ocean color, and new satellite sea surface salinity measurements, are needed and will enable frequent assessment of ocean acidification parameters over large spatial scales

The CMS Tracker Readout Front End Driver

The Front End Driver, FED, is a 9U 400mm VME64x card designed for reading out the Compact Muon Solenoid, CMS, silicon tracker signals transmitted by the APV25 analogue pipeline Application Specific Integrated Circuits. The FED receives the signals via 96 optical fibers at a total input rate of 3.4 GB/sec. The signals are digitized and processed by applying algorithms for pedestal and common mode noise subtraction. Algorithms that search for clusters of hits are used to further reduce the input rate. Only the cluster data along with trigger information of the event are transmitted to the CMS data acquisition system using the S-LINK64 protocol at a maximum rate of 400 MB/sec. All data processing algorithms on the FED are executed in large on-board Field Programmable Gate Arrays. Results on the design, performance, testing and quality control of the FED are presented and discussed

Workforce predictive risk modelling: development of a model to identify general practices at risk of a supply−demand imbalance

Objective: This study aimed to develop a risk prediction model identifying general practices at risk of workforce supply–demand imbalance. Design: This is a secondary analysis of routine data on general practice workforce, patient experience and registered populations (2012 to 2016), combined with a census of general practitioners’ (GPs’) career intentions (2016). Setting/Participants: A hybrid approach was used to develop a model to predict workforce supply–demand imbalance based on practice factors using historical data (2012–2016) on all general practices in England (with over 1000 registered patients n=6398). The model was applied to current data (2016) to explore future risk for practices in South West England (n=368). Primary outcome measure: The primary outcome was a practice being in a state of workforce supply–demand imbalance operationally defined as being in the lowest third nationally of access scores according to the General Practice Patient Survey and the highest third nationally according to list size per full-time equivalent GP (weighted to the demographic distribution of registered patients and adjusted for deprivation). Results: Based on historical data, the predictive model had fair to good discriminatory ability to predict which practices faced supply–demand imbalance (area under receiver operating characteristic curve=0.755). Predictions using current data suggested that, on average, practices at highest risk of future supply–demand imbalance are currently characterised by having larger patient lists, employing more nurses, serving more deprived and younger populations, and having considerably worse patient experience ratings when compared with other practices. Incorporating findings from a survey of GP’s career intentions made little difference to predictions of future supply–demand risk status when compared with expected future workforce projections based only on routinely available data on GPs’ gender and age. Conclusions: It is possible to make reasonable predictions of an individual general practice’s future risk of undersupply of GP workforce with respect to its patient population. However, the predictions are inherently limited by the data available

Ephemeris Updates for Seven Selected HATNet Survey Transiting Exoplanets

We refined the ephemeris of seven transiting exoplanets HAT-P-6b, HAT-P-12b, HAT-P-18b, HAT-P-22b, HAT-P-32b, HAT-P-33b, and HAT-P-52b. We observed 11 transits from eight observatories in different filters for HAT-P-6b and HAT-P-32b. Also, the Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD) observations for each of the seven exoplanets were analyzed, and the light curves of five systems were studied using Transiting light Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) data. We used Exofast-v1 to simulate these ground- and space-based light curves and estimate mid-transit times. We obtained a total of 11, 175 and 67 mid-transit times for these seven exoplanets from our observations, ETD and TESS data, respectively, along with 155 mid-transit times from the literature. Then, we generated transit timing variation (TTV) diagrams for each using derived mid-transit times as well as those found in the literature. The systems' linear ephemeris was then refined and improved using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. All of the studied exoplanets, with the exception of the HAT-P-12b system, displayed an increasing trend in the orbital period in the TTV diagrams.Comment: 11 Pages, submitted to the Astrophysics journa

Healthy publics: Enabling cultures and environments for health

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this recordDespite extraordinary advances in biomedicine and associated gains in human health and well-being, a growing number of health and well-being related challenges have remained or emerged in recent years. These challenges are often ‘more than biomedical’ in complexion, being social, cultural and environmental in terms of their key drivers and determinants, and underline the necessity of a concerted policy focus on generating healthy societies. Despite the apparent agreement on this diagnosis, the means to produce change are seldom clear, even when the turn to health and well-being requires sizable shifts in our understandings of public health and research practices. This paper sets out a platform from which research approaches, methods and translational pathways for enabling health and wellbeing can be built. The term ‘healthy publics’ allows us to shift the focus of public health away from ‘the public’ or individuals as targets for intervention, and away from the view that culture acts as a barrier to efficient biomedical intervention, towards a greater recognition of the public struggles that are involved in raising health issues, questioning what counts as healthy and unhealthy and assembling the evidence and experience to change practices and outcomes. Creating the conditions for health and well-being, we argue, requires an engaged research process in which public experiments in building and repairing social and material relations are staged and sustained even if, and especially when, the fates of those publics remain fragile and buffeted by competing and often more powerful public formations.The authors would like to acknowledge the Wellcome Trust for funding the Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health (grant reference 203109/Z/16/Z). All authors are lead members of the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health at the University of Exeter