All-sky visible and near infrared space astrometry

The era of all-sky space astrometry began with the Hipparcos mission in 1989 and provided the first very accurate catalogue of apparent magnitudes, positions, parallaxes and proper motions of 120 000 bright stars at the milliarcsec (or milliarcsec per year) accuracy level. Hipparcos has now been superseded by the results of the Gaia mission. The second Gaia data release contained astrometric data for almost 1.7 billion sources with tens of microarcsec (or microarcsec per year) accuracy in a vast volume of the Milky Way and future data releases will further improve on this. Gaia has just completed its nominal 5-year mission (July 2019), but is expected to continue in operations for an extended period of an additional 5 years through to mid 2024. Its final catalogue to be released ∼ 2027, will provide astrometry for ∼ 2 billion sources, with astrometric precisions reaching 10 microarcsec. Why is accurate astrometry so important? The answer is that it provides fundamental data which underpin much of modern observational astronomy as will be detailed in this White Paper. All-sky visible and Near-InfraRed (NIR) astrometry with a wavelength cutoff in the K-band is not just focused on a single or small number of key science cases. Instead, it is extremely broad, answering key science questions in nearly every branch of astronomy while also providing a dense and accurate visible-NIR reference frame needed for future astronomy facilities

All-sky visible and near infrared space astrometry

AbstractThe era of all-sky space astrometry began with the Hipparcos mission in 1989 and provided the first very accurate catalogue of apparent magnitudes, positions, parallaxes and proper motions of 120 000 bright stars at the milliarcsec (or milliarcsec per year) accuracy level. Hipparcos has now been superseded by the results of the Gaia mission. The second Gaia data release contained astrometric data for almost 1.7 billion sources with tens of microarcsec (or microarcsec per year) accuracy in a vast volume of the Milky Way and future data releases will further improve on this. Gaia has just completed its nominal 5-year mission (July 2019), but is expected to continue in operations for an extended period of an additional 5 years through to mid 2024. Its final catalogue to be released $\sim$ ∼ 2027, will provide astrometry for $\sim$ ∼ 2 billion sources, with astrometric precisions reaching 10 microarcsec. Why is accurate astrometry so important? The answer is that it provides fundamental data which underpin much of modern observational astronomy as will be detailed in this White Paper. All-sky visible and Near-InfraRed (NIR) astrometry with a wavelength cutoff in the K-band is not just focused on a single or small number of key science cases. Instead, it is extremely broad, answering key science questions in nearly every branch of astronomy while also providing a dense and accurate visible-NIR reference frame needed for future astronomy facilities.</jats:p

Tests of Lorentz invariance at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Experimental tests of Lorentz symmetry in systems of all types are critical for ensuring that the basic assumptions of physics are well-founded. Data from all phases of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a kiloton-scale heavy water Cherenkov detector, are analyzed for possible violations of Lorentz symmetry in the neutrino sector. Such violations would appear as one of eight possible signal types in the detector: six seasonal variations in the solar electron neutrino survival probability differing in energy and time dependence, and two shape changes to the oscillated solar neutrino energy spectrum. No evidence for such signals is observed, and limits on the size of such effects are established in the framework of the Standard Model Extension, including 40 limits on perviously unconstrained operators and improved limits on 15 additional operators. This makes limits on all minimal, Dirac-type Lorentz violating operators in the neutrino sector available for the first time

Effect of raloxifene on the risk of new vertebral fracture in postmenopausal women with osteopenia or osteoporosis: a reanalysis of the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation trial

Raloxifene reduces vertebral fracture risk in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and established osteoporosis, but its efficacy in women with osteopenia has not been studied. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of raloxifene hydrochloride on the risk of vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women with osteopenia and to compare this effect with that in women with osteoporosis as defined by the bone mineral density (BMD) T-score at the hip. We studied the 3204 postmenopausal women with osteopenia or osteoporosis without vertebral fractures at baseline in the Multiple Outcomes of Raloxifene Evaluation trial. Compared with placebo, 60 mg/day raloxifene reduced the risk of new vertebral fractures at 3 years independent of baseline total hip BMD. The relative risk for new vertebral fractures for the raloxifene group compared with placebo was 0.53 (95% CI, 0.32-0.88) for those with osteopenia and 0.31 (0.06-0.71) for those with osteoporosis. In raloxifene-treated women the rate of vertebral fracture was similar in women with osteoporosis (2%) to that in women with osteopenia (1.9%). For clinically apparent vertebral fractures, the relative risk of fracture in the osteopenia group for raloxifene was 0.25 (0.04-0.63) compared with placebo. There were no new clinical vertebral fractures in women with osteoporosis receiving raloxifene, whereas four occurred in the placebo group. We conclude that treatment with 60 mg/day raloxifene significantly decreases the risk of new vertebral fractures and new clinical vertebral fractures in postmenopausal women without baseline vertebral fracture who have osteopenia or osteoporosis

2019 Touch World Cup: An analysis of movement demands by half and gender

Purpose: Quantify and compare the movement demands of gameplay in a male only and a female only touch rugby team competing in the International Touch World Cup (2019).  Methods: Movement demands (male: n = 16; female: n = 15) were assessed across 16 games (male open's: 8; female open's: 8) with 10 Hz global positioning system devices. Separate linear mixed models and Cohen's effect size (ES) comparisons were used to analyze variables by half (1st vs. 2nd half) and gender (male vs. female).  Results: Within game comparisons revealed reductions in run distance (ES = -0.26; p = 0.003) and worst-case scenario one-minute relative distance (ES = -0.29; p = 0.019) from the first to second half in a male only team. The female only team experienced an increase in walk distance (ES = 0.42; p Conclusions: Movement demands of touch games remain consistent from the first to second half in male only and female only teams. However, male only games appear to be played at a higher intensity than female only games. Results from our study suggest gender specific conditioning programs should be implemented to best prepare players for international competition.</p