Why \u27Down Under\u27 Is a Cut Above: A Comparison of Rates of and Reasons for Caesarean Section in England and Australia

Background: Most studies examining determinants of rising rates of caesarean section have examined patterns in documented reasons for caesarean over time in a single location. Further insights could be gleaned from cross-cultural research that examines practice patterns in locations with disparate rates of caesarean section at a single time point. Methods: We compared both rates of and main reason for pre-labour and intrapartum caesarean between England and Queensland, Australia, using data from retrospective cross-sectional surveys of women who had recently given birth in England (n = 5,250) and Queensland (n = 3,467)

On the Feasibility of Intense Radial Velocity Surveys for Earth-twin Discoveries

This work assesses the potential capability of the next generation of high-precision Radial Velocity (RV) instruments for Earth-twin exoplanet detection. From the perspective of the importance of data sampling, the Terra Hunting Experiment aims to do this through an intense series of nightly RV observations over a long baseline on a carefully selected target list, via the brand-new instrument HARPS3. This paper describes an end-to-end simulation of generating and processing such data to help us better understand the impact of uncharacterised stellar noise in the recovery of Earth-mass planets with orbital periods of the order of many months. We consider full Keplerian systems, realistic simulated stellar noise, instrument white noise, and location-specific weather patterns for our observation schedules. We use Bayesian statistics to assess various planetary models fitted to the synthetic data, and compare the successful planet recovery of the Terra Hunting Experiment schedule with a typical reference survey. We find that the Terra Hunting Experiment can detect Earth-twins in the habitable zones of solar-type stars, in single and multi-planet systems, and in the presence of stellar signals. Also that it out-performs a typical reference survey on accuracy of recovered parameters, and that it performs comparably to an uninterrupted space-based schedule.S. J. Thompson and D. Queloz acknowledges the support from the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) as part of research grant ST/N002997/1. R. Hall acknowledges the STFC for his PhD studentship award number 164162

On the observed relationships between wintertime variability in Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension sea surface temperatures and the atmospheric circulation over the North Pacific

Observational analyses reveal that wintertime variations in sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension (KOE) region of the North Pacific are associated with two distinct and robust patterns of atmospheric variability: 1) a pattern that peaks in amplitude approximately 2–3 weeks prior to large KOE SST anomalies and is consistent with atmospheric forcing of the SST field and 2) a very different pattern that lags SST anomalies in the KOE region by approximately a month. The latter pattern is dominated by low sea level pressure anomalies and turbulent heat fluxes directed into the atmosphere over warm SST anomalies and is interpreted as the transient atmospheric response to SST anomalies over the KOE region. The results contribute to a growing body of evidence that suggests variations in SSTs in the midlatitude oceans are capable of significantly influencing the large-scale atmospheric circulation, especially near western boundary currents

Psychosocial Interventions for Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Individuals with Chronic Kidney Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose: Depressive and anxiety symptoms are common amongst individuals with chronic kidney disease and are known to affect quality of life adversely. Psychosocial interventions have been shown to decrease depressive and anxiety symptoms in various chronic diseases, but few studies have examined their efficacy in people with chronic kidney disease and no meta-analysis has been published. Thus, the aim of the present systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of psychosocial interventions on depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as quality of life in individuals diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and/or their carers. Methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we included published randomized controlled trials comparing psychosocial interventions versus usual care for impacting depressive and anxiety symptoms and quality of life. Results: Eight studies were included in the systematic review and six of these were subjected to meta-analysis. Psychosocial interventions were associated with a medium effect size for reduction in depressive symptoms and a small effect size for improved quality of life in the in individuals with chronic-kidney-disease and their carers. Some evidence suggested a reduction in anxiety. Conclusion: Psychosocial interventions appear to reduce depressive symptoms and improve quality of life in patients with chronic-kidney-disease and their carers and to have some beneficial impact on anxiety. However, the small number of identified studies indicates a need for further research in this field

ABORAS: polarimetric, 10cm/s RV observations of the Sun as a star

We present a description of A dual-Beam pOlarimetric Robotic Aperture for the Sun (ABORAS), to serve as a Solar input with a dedicated Stokes V polarimeter for the HARPS3 high-resolution spectrograph. ABORAS has three main science drivers: trying to understand the physics behind stellar variability, tracking the long-term stability of HARPS3, and serve as a benchmark for Earth-sized exoplanet detection with HARPS3 by injecting an Earth RV signal into the data. By design, ABORAS will (together with the HARPS3 instrument) be able to measure 10cm/s variations in RV of the integrated Solar disk and detect integrated magnetic field levels at sub 1 Gauss level through circularly polarized light.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, SPIE Proceedings pre-print, draft version

Reconstruction of a conic-section surface from autocollimator-based deflectometric profilometry

We present a description of our method to process a set of autocollimator-based deflectometer 1-dimensional line-scans taken over a large optical surface and reconstruct them to a best-fit conic-section surface. The challenge with our task is that each line-scan is in a different (unknown) coordinate reference frame with respect to the other line-scans in the set. This problem arises due to the limited angular measurement range of the autocollimator used in the deflectometer and the need to measure over a greater range; this results in the optic under measurement being rotated (in pitch and roll) between each scan to bring the autocollimator back into measurement range and therefore each scan is taken in a different coordinate frame. We describe an approach using a 6N+2 dimension optimisation (where N is the number of scan lines taken across the mirror) that uses a gradient-based non-linear least squares fitting combined with a multi-start global search strategy to find the best-fit surface. Careful formulation of the problem is required to reduce numerical noise and allow the routine to converge on a solution of the required accuracy

On the Observed Relationships between Variability in Gulf Stream Sea Surface Temperatures and the Atmospheric Circulation over the North Atlantic

The advent of increasingly high-resolution satellite observations and numerical models has led to a series of advances in understanding the role of midlatitude sea surface temperature (SST) in climate variability, especially near western boundary currents (WBC). Observational analyses suggest that ocean dynamics play a central role in driving interannual SST variability over the Kuroshio–Oyashio and Gulf Stream extensions. Numerical experiments suggest that variations in the SST field within these WBC regions may have a much more pronounced influence on the atmospheric circulation than previously thought. In this study, the authors examine the observational support for (or against) a robust atmospheric response to midlatitude SST variability in the Gulf Stream extension. To do so, they apply lead–lag analysis based on daily mean data to assess the evidence for two-way coupling between SST anomalies and the atmospheric circulation on transient time scales, building off of previous studies that have utilized weekly data. A novel decomposition approach is employed to demonstrate that atmospheric circulation anomalies over the Gulf Stream extension can be separated into two distinct patterns of midlatitude atmosphere–ocean interaction: 1) a pattern that peaks 2–3 weeks before the largest SST anomalies in the Gulf Stream extension, which can be viewed as the “atmospheric forcing,” and 2) a pattern that peaks several weeks after the largest SST anomalies, which the authors argue can be viewed as the “atmospheric response.” The latter pattern is linearly independent of the former and is interpreted as the potential response of the atmospheric circulation to SST variability in the Gulf Stream extension

Social physique anxiety and physical activity in early adolescent girls : the influence of maturation and physical activity motives

This study considered the influence of maturation on social physique anxiety (SPA), the relationship between SPA and current and future physical activity (PA) levels and the influence of motives for physical activity on this relationship in early adolescent girls (n=162; mean age=11.80±0.33 years). Participants completed the Pubertal Development Scale, the modified Social Physique Anxiety Scale and the Motives for Physical Activity Scale at baseline and the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children at baseline and 6 months later. The girls became less active across the 6 months and girls in the early stages of maturation had significantly lower SPA than the girls in the middle and late stages of maturation. SPA was not related to current or future physical activity in the sample as a whole. Cluster analysis identified four groups with different motive profiles and the High Appearance and Fitness group demonstrated a moderate negative relationship between SPA and PA at phase 1, whereas the other groups did not. These findings indicate that SPA may increase with maturation and the relationship between SPA and PA is dependent on reasons for being active. For girls who are motivated to be active primarily by body-related reasons SPA is likely to lead to lower levels of PA

Scavenging by threatened turtles regulates freshwater ecosystem health during fish kills

Humans are increasing the frequency of fish kills by degrading freshwater ecosystems. Simultaneously, scavengers like freshwater turtles are declining globally, including in the Australian Murray–Darling Basin. Reduced scavenging may cause water quality problems impacting both ecosystems and humans. We used field and mesocosm experiments to test whether scavenging by turtles regulates water quality during simulated fish kills. In the field, we found that turtles were important scavengers of fish carrion. In mesocosms, turtles rapidly consumed carrion, and water quality in mesocosms with turtles returned to pre-fish kill levels faster than in turtle-free controls. Our experiments have important ecological implications, as they suggest that turtles are critical scavengers that regulate water quality in freshwater ecosystems. Recovery of turtle populations may be necessary to avoid the worsening of ecosystem health, particularly after fish kills, which would have devastating consequences for many freshwater species

HARPS3 for a Roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope

We present a description of a new instrument development, HARPS3, planned to be installed on an upgraded and roboticized Isaac Newton Telescope by end-2018. HARPS3 will be a high resolution (R = 115,000) echelle spectrograph with a wavelength range from 380-690 nm. It is being built as part of the Terra Hunting Experiment - a future 10 year radial velocity measurement programme to discover Earth-like exoplanets. The instrument design is based on the successful HARPS spectrograph on the 3.6m ESO telescope and HARPS-N on the TNG telescope. The main changes to the design in HARPS3 will be: a customised fibre adapter at the Cassegrain focus providing a stabilised beam feed and on-sky fibre diameter ~ 1.4 arcsec, the implementation of a new continuous flow cryostat to keep the CCD temperature very stable, detailed characterisation of the HARPS3 CCD to map the effective pixel positions and thus provide an improved accuracy wavelength solution, an optimised integrated polarimeter and the instrument integrated into a robotic operation. The robotic operation will optimise our programme which requires our target stars to be measured on a nightly basis. We present an overview of the entire project, including a description of our anticipated robotic operation.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, SPIE conference proceeding