The Effects of Negative Legacies on the Adjustment of Parentally Bereaved Children and Adolescents

This is a report of a qualitative analysis of a sample of bereaved families in which one parent died and in which children scored in the clinical range on the Child Behavior Check List. The purpose of this analysis was to learn more about the lives of these children. They were considered to be at risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems associated with the death. We discovered that many of these “high risk” children had a continuing bond with the deceased that was primarily negative and troubling for them in contrast to a comparison group of children not at risk from the same study. Five types of legacies, not mutually exclusive, were identified: health related, role related, personal qualities, legacy of blame, and an emotional legacy. Coping behavior on the part of the surviving parent seemed to make a difference in whether or not a legacy was experienced as negative

Hyperfine Level Splitting for Hydrogen-Like Ions due to Rotation-Spin Coupling

The theoretical aspects of spin-rotation coupling are presented. The approach is based on the general covariance principle. It is shown that the gyrogravitational ratio of the bare spin-1/2 and the spin-1 particles is equal unity. That is why spin couples with rotation as an ordinary angular momentum. This result is the rigorous substantiation of the cranking model. To observe the phenomenon, the experiment with hydrogen-like ions in a storage ring is suggested. It is found that the splitting of the $1 ^2!S_{1/2}, F=1/2$ hyperfine state of the $^{140}{\rm Pr}^{58+}$ and $^{142}{\rm Pm}^{60+}$ ions circulating in the storage ring ESR in Darmstadt along a helical trajectory is about 4.5 MHz. We argue that such splitting can be experimentally determined by means of the ionic interferometry.Comment: 6 pages, final versio

Turning points: the personal and professional circumstances that lead academics to become middle managers

In the current higher education climate, there is a growing perception that the pressures associated with being an academic middle manager outweigh the perceived rewards of the position. This article investigates the personal and professional circumstances that lead academics to become middle managers by drawing on data from life history interviews undertaken with 17 male and female department heads from a range of disciplines, in a post-1992 UK university. The data suggests that experiencing conflict between personal and professional identities, manifested through different socialization experiences over time, can lead to a ‘turning point’ and a decision that affects a person’s career trajectory. Although the results of this study cannot be generalized, the findings may help other individuals and institutions move towards a firmer understanding of the academic who becomes head of department—in relation to theory, practice and research

Theory of the propagation of coupled waves in arbitrarily-inhomogeneous stratified media

We generalize the invariant imbedding theory of the wave propagation and derive new invariant imbedding equations for the propagation of arbitrary number of coupled waves of any kind in arbitrarily-inhomogeneous stratified media, where the wave equations are effectively one-dimensional. By doing this, we transform the original boundary value problem of coupled second-order differential equations to an initial value problem of coupled first-order differential equations, which makes the numerical solution of the coupled wave equations much easier. Using the invariant imbedding equations, we are able to calculate the matrix reflection and transmission coefficients and the wave amplitudes inside the inhomogeneous media exactly and efficiently. We establish the validity and the usefulness of our results by applying them to the propagation of circularly-polarized electromagnetic waves in one-dimensional photonic crystals made of isotropic chiral media. We find that there are three kinds of bandgaps in these structures and clarify the nature of these bandgaps by exact calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Europhys. Let

The cosmic growth of the active black hole population at 1<z<2 in zCOSMOS, VVDS and SDSS

We present a census of the active black hole population at 1<z<2, by constructing the bivariate distribution function of black hole mass and Eddington ratio, employing a maximum likelihood fitting technique. The study of the active black hole mass function (BHMF) and the Eddington ratio distribution function (ERDF) allows us to clearly disentangle the active galactic nuclei (AGN) downsizing phenomenon, present in the AGN luminosity function, into its physical processes of black hole mass downsizing and accretion rate evolution. We are utilizing type-1 AGN samples from three optical surveys (VVDS, zCOSMOS and SDSS), that cover a wide range of 3 dex in luminosity over our redshift interval of interest. We investigate the cosmic evolution of the AGN population as a function of AGN luminosity, black hole mass and accretion rate. Compared to z = 0, we find a distinct change in the shape of the BHMF and the ERDF, consistent with downsizing in black hole mass. The active fraction or duty cycle of type-1 AGN at z~1.5 is almost flat as a function of black hole mass, while it shows a strong decrease with increasing mass at z=0. We are witnessing a phase of intense black hole growth, which is largely driven by the onset of AGN activity in massive black holes towards z=2. We finally compare our results to numerical simulations and semi-empirical models and while we find reasonable agreement over certain parameter ranges, we highlight the need to refine these models in order to match our observations.Comment: 31 pages, 28 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

A Flux-Limited Sample of z~1 Ly-alpha Emitting Galaxies in the CDFS

We describe a method for obtaining a flux-limited sample of Ly-alpha emitters from GALEX grism data. We show that the multiple GALEX grism images can be converted into a three-dimensional (two spatial axes and one wavelength axis) data cube. The wavelength slices may then be treated as narrowband images and searched for emission-line galaxies. For the GALEX NUV grism data, the method provides a Ly-alpha flux-limited sample over the redshift range z=0.67-1.16. We test the method on the Chandra Deep Field South field, where we find 28 Ly-alpha emitters with faint continuum magnitudes (NUV>22) that are not present in the GALEX pipeline sample. We measure the completeness by adding artificial emitters and measuring the fraction recovered. We find that we have an 80% completeness above a Ly-alpha flux of 10^-15 erg/cm^2/s. We use the UV spectra and the available X-ray data and optical spectra to estimate the fraction of active galactic nuclei in the selection. We report the first detection of a giant Ly-alpha blob at z<1, though we find that these objects are much less common at z=1 than at z=3. Finally, we compute limits on the z~1 Ly-alpha luminosity function and confirm that there is a dramatic evolution in the luminosity function over the redshift range z=0-1.Comment: 18 pages, in press at The Astrophysical Journa

Lineage A betacoronavirus NS2 proteins and the homologous torovirus Berne pp1a carboxy-terminal domain are phosphodiesterases that antagonize activation of RNase L

Viruses in the family Coronaviridae, within the order Nidovirales, are etiologic agents of a range of human and animal diseases, including both mild and severe respiratory diseases in humans. These viruses encode conserved replicase and structural proteins as well as more diverse accessory proteins, encoded in the 3′ ends of their genomes, that often act as host cell antagonists. We previously showed that 2′,5′-phosphodiesterases (2′,5′-PDEs) encoded by the prototypical Betacoronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV), and by Middle East respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus antagonize the oligoadenylate-RNase L (OAS-RNase L) pathway. Here we report that additional coronavirus superfamily members, including lineage A betacoronaviruses and toroviruses infecting both humans and animals, encode 2′,5′-PDEs capable of antagonizing RNase L. We used a chimeric MHV system (MHV(Mut)) in which exogenous PDEs were expressed from an MHV backbone lacking the gene for a functional NS2 protein, the endogenous RNase L antagonist. With this system, we found that 2′,5′-PDEs encoded by the human coronavirus HCoV-OC43 (OC43; an agent of the common cold), human enteric coronavirus (HECoV), equine coronavirus (ECoV), and equine torovirus Berne (BEV) are enzymatically active, rescue replication of MHV(Mut) in bone marrow-derived macrophages, and inhibit RNase L-mediated rRNA degradation in these cells. Additionally, PDEs encoded by OC43 and BEV rescue MHV(Mut) replication and restore pathogenesis in wild-type (WT) B6 mice. This finding expands the range of viruses known to encode antagonists of the potent OAS-RNase L antiviral pathway, highlighting its importance in a range of species as well as the selective pressures exerted on viruses to antagonize it. IMPORTANCE Viruses in the family Coronaviridae include important human and animal pathogens, including the recently emerged viruses severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (MERS-CoV). We showed previously that two viruses within the genus Betacoronavirus, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and MERS-CoV, encode 2′,5′-phosphodiesterases (2′,5′-PDEs) that antagonize the OAS-RNase L pathway, and we report here that these proteins are furthermore conserved among additional coronavirus superfamily members, including lineage A betacoronaviruses and toroviruses, suggesting that they may play critical roles in pathogenesis. As there are no licensed vaccines or effective antivirals against human coronaviruses and few against those infecting animals, identifying viral proteins contributing to virulence can inform therapeutic development. Thus, this work demonstrates that a potent antagonist of host antiviral defenses is encoded by multiple and diverse viruses within the family Coronaviridae, presenting a possible broad-spectrum therapeutic target