Has the publics knowledge of anatomy been hamstrung? A questionnaire-based exploration of basic anatomical awareness within the general population

Despite a recent resurgence in public interest for anatomical sciences,1 little research exists to determine the extent of their knowledge. We aimed to assess this through a questionnaire-based localisation of anatomical structures. Our findings suggest a significant gender discrepancy, as well as the presence of prevalent anatomical misconceptions which, to our best knowledge, have not been documented in the literature. These results have implications for the content and targeting of future public and clinical teaching

Smart Focal Plane Technologies for VLT Instruments

As we move towards the era of ELTs, it is timely to think about the future role of the 8-m class telescopes. Under the OPTICON programme, novel technologies have been developed that are intended for use in multi-object and integral-field spectrographs. To date, these have been targeted at instrument concepts for the European ELT, but there are also significant possibilities for their inclusion in new VLT instruments, ensuring the continued success and productivity of these unique telescopes.Comment: 5 pages, to appear in the proceedings of the ESO Workshop "Science with the VLT in the ELT era

Sex allocation and population structure in apicomplexan (protozoa) parasites

Establishing the selfing rate of parasites is important for studies in clinical and epidemiological medicine as well as evolutionary biology. Sex allocation theory offers a relatively cheap and easy way to estimate selfing rates in natural parasite populations. Local mate competition (LMC) theory predicts that the optimal sex ratio (r*; defined as proportion males) is related to the selfing rate (s) by the equation r*=(1-s)/2. In this paper, we generalize the application of sex allocation theory across parasitic protozoa in the phylum Apicomplexa. This cosmopolitan phylum consists entirely of parasites, and includes a number of species of medical and veterinary importance. We suggest that LMC theory should apply to eimeriorin intestinal parasites. As predicted, data from 13 eimeriorin species showed a female-biased sex ratio, with the sex ratios suggesting high levels of selfing (0.8-1.0). Importantly our estimate of the selfing rate in one of these species, Toxoplasma gondii, is in agreement with previous genetic analyses. In contrast, we predict that LMC theory will not apply to the groups in which syzygy occurs (adeleorins, gregarines and piroplasms). Syzygy occurs when a single male gametocyte and a single female gametocyte pair together physically or in close proximity, just prior to fertilization. As predicted, data from four adeleorin species showed sex ratios not significantly different from 0.5

Census of Self-Obscured Massive Stars in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer: Implications for Understanding the Progenitors of SN 2008S-Like Transients

A new link in the causal mapping between massive stars and potentially fatal explosive transients opened with the 2008 discovery of the dust-obscured progenitors of the luminous outbursts in NGC 6946 and NGC 300. Here we carry out a systematic mid-IR photometric search for massive, luminous, self-obscured stars in four nearby galaxies: M33, NGC 300, M81, and NGC 6946. For detection, we use only the 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron IRAC bands, as these can still be used for multi-epoch Spitzer surveys of nearby galaxies (=<10 Mpc). We combine familiar PSF and aperture-photometry with an innovative application of image subtraction to catalog the self-obscured massive stars in these galaxies. In particular, we verify that stars analogous to the progenitors of the NGC 6946 (SN 2008S) and NGC 300 transients are truly rare in all four galaxies: their number may be as low as ~1 per galaxy at any given moment. This result empirically supports the idea that the dust-enshrouded phase is a very short-lived phenomenon in the lives of many massive stars and that these objects constitute a natural extension of the AGB sequence. We also provide mid-IR catalogs of sources in NGC 300, M81, and NGC 6946.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 11 tables. Accepted by ApJ on April 12, 2010. High resolution figures and full length versions of tables 6, 8 and 10 can be accessed at http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/~khan/redstars

WASP-30b: a 61 Mjup brown dwarf transiting a V=12, F8 star

We report the discovery of a 61-Jupiter-mass brown dwarf, which transits its F8V host star, WASP-30, every 4.16 days. From a range of age indicators we estimate the system age to be 1-2 Gyr. We derive a radius (0.89 +/- 0.02 RJup) for the companion that is consistent with that predicted (0.914 RJup) by a model of a 1-Gyr-old, non-irradiated brown dwarf with a dusty atmosphere. The location of WASP-30b in the minimum of the mass-radius relation is consistent with the quantitative prediction of Chabrier & Baraffe (2000), thus confirming the theory.Comment: As accepted for publication in ApJL (6 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables

The value of hope: development and validation of a contextual measure of hope among people living with HIV in urban Tanzania a mixed methods exploratory sequential study.

BACKGROUND: Hope or hopefulness enhances coping and improves quality of life in persons with chronic or incurable illnesses. Lack of hope is associated with depression and anxiety, which impact negatively on quality of life. In Tanzania, where HIV prevalence is high, the rates of depression and anxiety are over four times higher among people living with HIV (PLH) compared to persons not infected and contribute annual mortality among PLH. Tanzania has a shortage of human resources for mental health, limiting access to mental health care. Evidence-based psychosocial interventions can complement existing services and improve access to quality mental health services in the midst of human resource shortages. Facilitating hope can be a critical element of non-pharmacological interventions which are underutilized, partly due to limited awareness and lack of hope measures, adapted to accommodate cultural context and perspectives of PLH. To address this gap, we developed and validated a local hope measure among PLH in Tanzania. METHODS: Two-phased mixed methods exploratory sequential study among PLH. Phase I was Hope-related items identification using deductive, inductive approaches and piloting. Phase II was an evaluation of psychometric properties at baseline and 24 months. Classical test theory, exploratory, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used. RESULTS: Among 722 PLH, 59% were women, mean age was 39.3 years, and majority had primary school level of education. A total of 40 hope items were reduced to 10 in a three-factor solution, explaining 69% of variance at baseline, and 93% at follow-up. Internal consistency Cronbach's alpha was 0.869 at baseline and 0.958 at follow-up. The three-factor solution depicted: positive affect; cognition of effectiveness of HIV care; and goals/plans/ future optimism. Test-retest reliability was good (r = 0.797) and a number of indices were positive for CFA model fit, including Comparative Fit Index of 0.984. CONCLUSION: The developed local hope scale had good internal reliability, validity, and its dimensionality was confirmed against expectations. The fewer items for hope assessment argue well for its use in busy clinical settings to improve HIV care in Tanzania. Hope in this setting could be more than cognitive goal thinking, pathway and motivation warranting more research. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The intervention was registered in USA ClinicalTrials.gov on September 26, 2012, Registration number: NCT01693458

Dimensional accuracy of Electron Beam Melting (EBM) additive manufacture with regard to weight optimized truss structures

The Electron Beam (EBM) additive manufacturing process is well suited to fabricating complex structural designs in Ti–6Al–4V because of the design freedoms it offers combined with strong and consistent material properties. However it has been observed that complications may arise when manufacturing truss-like structures (such as those produced via structural topology optimization) in the form of undersized features on the finished part. The issue appears to affect truss members that are not aligned with the vertical build direction, with an apparent lack of material on the negative surfaces. This effect appears to worsen with a greater angle between the truss member and the build direction, even with the use of support structures. This investigation has characterized and measured the dimensional errors that result from this issue through 3D scanning techniques. Process modifications have then been made which result in significant improvements in dimensional accuracy. This investigation highlights the importance of heat management at features with negative surfaces to yield parts that are dimensionally accurate without introducing excessive internal melt defects in the form of voids and porosity

Identifying component modules

A computer-based system for modelling component dependencies and identifying component modules is presented. A variation of the Dependency Structure Matrix (DSM) representation was used to model component dependencies. The system utilises a two-stage approach towards facilitating the identification of a hierarchical modular structure. The first stage calculates a value for a clustering criterion that may be used to group component dependencies together. A Genetic Algorithm is described to optimise the order of the components within the DSM with the focus of minimising the value of the clustering criterion to identify the most significant component groupings (modules) within the product structure. The second stage utilises a 'Module Strength Indicator' (MSI) function to determine a value representative of the degree of modularity of the component groupings. The application of this function to the DSM produces a 'Module Structure Matrix' (MSM) depicting the relative modularity of available component groupings within it. The approach enabled the identification of hierarchical modularity in the product structure without the requirement for any additional domain specific knowledge within the system. The system supports design by providing mechanisms to explicitly represent and utilise component and dependency knowledge to facilitate the nontrivial task of determining near-optimal component modules and representing product modularity

Toward Performance-Portable PETSc for GPU-based Exascale Systems

The Portable Extensible Toolkit for Scientific computation (PETSc) library delivers scalable solvers for nonlinear time-dependent differential and algebraic equations and for numerical optimization.The PETSc design for performance portability addresses fundamental GPU accelerator challenges and stresses flexibility and extensibility by separating the programming model used by the application from that used by the library, and it enables application developers to use their preferred programming model, such as Kokkos, RAJA, SYCL, HIP, CUDA, or OpenCL, on upcoming exascale systems. A blueprint for using GPUs from PETSc-based codes is provided, and case studies emphasize the flexibility and high performance achieved on current GPU-based systems.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, 2 table