The SkyMapper Transient Survey

The SkyMapper 1.3 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory has now begun regular operations. Alongside the Southern Sky Survey, a comprehensive digital survey of the entire southern sky, SkyMapper will carry out a search for supernovae and other transients. The search strategy, covering a total footprint area of ~2000 deg2 with a cadence of $\leq 5$ days, is optimised for discovery and follow-up of low-redshift type Ia supernovae to constrain cosmic expansion and peculiar velocities. We describe the search operations and infrastructure, including a parallelised software pipeline to discover variable objects in difference imaging; simulations of the performance of the survey over its lifetime; public access to discovered transients; and some first results from the Science Verification data.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures; submitted to PAS

The Adirondack Chronology

The Adirondack Chronology is intended to be a useful resource for researchers and others interested in the Adirondacks and Adirondack history.https://digitalworks.union.edu/arlpublications/1000/thumbnail.jp

Subject preferences of fifth-grade children.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University N.B.:Pages 155 and 309 are missing from original thesis

"Doctor, what would you do?": physicians' responses to patient inquiries about periviable delivery

OBJECTIVE: To qualitatively assess obstetricians' and neonatologists' responses to standardized patients (SPs) asking "What would you do?" during periviable counseling encounters. METHODS: An exploratory single-center simulation study. SPs, portraying a pregnant woman presenting with ruptured membranes at 23 weeks, were instructed to ask, "What would you do?" if presented options regarding delivery management or resuscitation. Responses were independently reviewed and classified. RESULTS: We identified five response patterns: 'Disclose' (9/28), 'Don't Know' (11/28), 'Deflect' (23/28), 'Decline' (2/28), and 'Ignore' (2/28). Most physicians utilized more than one response pattern (22/28). Physicians 'deflected' the question by: restating or offering additional medical information; answering with a question; evoking a hypothetical patient; or redirecting the SP to other sources of support. When compared with neonatologists, obstetricians (40% vs. 15%) made personal or professional disclosures more often. Though both specialties readily acknowledged the importance of values in making a decision, only one physician attempted to elicit the patient's values. CONCLUSION: "What would you do?" represented a missed opportunity for values elicitation. Interventions are needed to facilitate values elicitation and shared decision-making in periviable care. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: If physicians fail to address patients' values and goals, they lack the information needed to develop patient-centered plans of care

Evaluation of two cockpit display concepts for civil tiltrotor instrument operations on steep approaches

A piloted simulation experiment was conducted using the NASA Ames Research Center Vertical Motion Simulator to evaluate two cockpit display formats designed for manual control on steep instrument approaches for a civil transport tiltrotor aircraft. The first display included a four-cue (pitch, roll, power lever position, and nacelle angle movement prompt) flight director. The second display format provided instantaneous flight path angle information together with other symbols for terminal area guidance. Pilots evaluated these display formats for an instrument approach task which required a level flight conversion from airplane-mode flight to helicopter-mode flight while decelerating to the nominal approach airspeed. Pilots tracked glide slopes of 6, 9, 15 and 25 degrees, terminating in a hover for a vertical landing on a 150 feet square vertipad. Approaches were conducted with low visibility and ceilings and with crosswinds and turbulence, with all aircraft systems functioning normally and were carried through to a landing. Desired approach and tracking performance was achieved with generally satisfactory handling qualities using either display format on glide slopes up through 15 degrees. Evaluations with both display formats for a 25 degree glide slope revealed serious problems with glide slope tracking at low airspeeds in crosswinds and the loss of the intended landing spot from the cockpit field of view

The Bullet cluster at its best: weighing stars, gas and dark matter

We present a new strong lensing mass reconstruction of the Bullet cluster (1E 0657-56) at z=0.296, based on WFC3 and ACS HST imaging and VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy. The strong lensing constraints underwent substantial revision compared to previously published analysis, there are now 14 (six new and eight previously known) multiply-imaged systems, of which three have spectroscopically confirmed redshifts (including one newly measured from this work). The reconstructed mass distribution explicitly included the combination of three mass components: i) the intra-cluster gas mass derived from X-ray observation, ii) the cluster galaxies modeled by their fundamental plane scaling relations and iii) dark matter. The model that includes the intra-cluster gas is the one with the best Bayesian evidence. This model has a total RMS value of 0.158" between the predicted and measured image positions for the 14 multiple images considered. The proximity of the total RMS to resolution of HST/WFC3 and ACS (0.07-0.15" FWHM) demonstrates the excellent precision of our mass model. The derived mass model confirms the spatial offset between the X-ray gas and dark matter peaks. The fraction of the galaxy halos mass to total mass is found to be f_s=11+/-5% for a total mass of 2.5+/-0.1 x 10^14 solar mass within a 250 kpc radial aperture.Comment: Accepted by A&A 15 pages, 12 figure

Detection and control of pregnancy hypertension using self-monitoring of blood pressure with automated telemonitoring: cost analyses of the BUMP Randomized Trials

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy hypertension continues to cause maternal and perinatal morbidity. Two linked UK randomized trials showed adding self-monitoring of blood pressure (SMBP) with automated telemonitoring to usual antenatal care did not result in earlier detection or better control of pregnancy hypertension. This article reports the trials’ integrated cost analyses. METHODS: Two cost analyses. SMBP with usual care was compared with usual care alone in pregnant individuals at risk of hypertension (BUMP 1 trial [Blood Pressure Monitoring in High Risk Pregnancy to Improve the Detection and Monitoring of Hypertension], n=2441) and with hypertension (BUMP 2 trial, n=850). Clinical notes review identified participant-level antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care and these were costed. Comparisons between trial arms used means and 95% CIs. Within BUMP 2, chronic and gestational hypertension cohorts were analyzed separately. Telemonitoring system costs were reported separately. RESULTS: In BUMP 1, mean (SE) total costs with SMBP and with usual care were £7200 (£323) and £7063 (£245), respectively, mean difference (95% CI), £151 (−£633 to £936). For the BUMP 2 chronic hypertension cohort, corresponding figures were £13 384 (£1230), £12 614 (£1081), mean difference £323 (−£2904 to £3549) and for the gestational hypertension cohort were £11 456 (£901), £11 145 (£959), mean difference £41 (−£2486 to £2567). The per-person cost of telemonitoring was £6 in BUMP 1 and £29 in BUMP 2. CONCLUSIONS: SMBP was not associated with changes in the cost of health care contacts for individuals at risk of, or with, pregnancy hypertension. This is reassuring as SMBP in pregnancy is widely prevalent, particularly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT03334149

Characterization of Escherichia coli MG1655 grown in a low-shear modeled microgravity environment

BACKGROUND: Extra-cellular shear force is an important environmental parameter that is significant both medically and in the space environment. Escherichia coli cells grown in a low-shear modeled microgravity (LSMMG) environment produced in a high aspect rotating vessel (HARV) were subjected to transcriptional and physiological analysis. RESULTS: Aerobic LSMMG cultures were grown in rich (LB) and minimal (MOPS + glucose) medium with a normal gravity vector HARV control. Reproducible changes in transcription were seen, but no specific LSMMG responsive genes were identified. Instead, absence of shear and a randomized gravity vector appears to cause local extra-cellular environmental changes, which elicit reproducible cellular responses. In minimal media, the majority of the significantly up- or down-regulated genes of known function were associated with the cell envelope. In rich medium, most LSMMG down-regulated genes were involved in translation. No observable changes in post-culture stress responses and antibiotic sensitivity were seen in cells immediately after exposure to LSMMG. Comparison with earlier studies of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium conducted under similar growth conditions, revealed essentially no similarity in the genes that were significantly up- or down-regulated. CONCLUSION: Comparison of these results to previous studies suggests that different organisms may dramatically differ in their responses to medically significant low-shear and space environments. Depending on their specific response, some organisms, such as Salmonella, may become preadapted in a manner that predisposes them to increased virulence