Ionized Gas Kinematics at High Resolution IV: Star Formation and a Rotating Core in the Medusa (NGC 4194)

NGC 4194 is a post-merger starburst known as The Medusa for its striking tidal features. We present here a detailed study of the structure and kinematics of ionized gas in the central 0.65 kpc of the Medusa. The data include radio continuum maps with resolution up to 0.18\arcsec (35 pc) and a $12.8\mu$m [NeII] data cube with spectral resolution $\sim4$\kms: the first {\it high resolution, extinction-free} observations of this remarkable object. The ionized gas has the kinematic signature of a core in solid-body rotation. The starburst has formed a complex of bright compact \HII~regions, probably excited by deeply embedded super star clusters, but none of these sources is a convincing candidate for a galactic nucleus. The nuclei of the merger partners that created the Medusa have not yet been identified.Comment: to appear in Ap

Bullying: research into practice

Prsentation looking at the issues which affect bullying including the imbalance of power, bullying versus peer aggression, repeated versus 'one-off' incidents, and intent

Dietary energy density and adiposity: employing bias adjustments in a meta-analysis of prospective studies.

BACKGROUND: Dietary studies differ in design and quality making it difficult to compare results. This study quantifies the prospective association between dietary energy density (DED) and adiposity in children using a meta-analysis method that adjusts for differences in design and quality through eliciting and incorporating expert opinion on the biases and their uncertainty. METHOD: Six prospective studies identified by a previous systematic literature search were included. Differences in study quality and design were considered respectively as internal and external biases and captured in bias checklists. Study results were converted to correlation coefficients; biases were considered either additive or proportional on this scale. The extent and uncertainty of the internal and external biases in each study were elicited in a formal process by five quantitatively-trained assessors and five subject-matter specialists. Biases for each study were combined across assessors using median pooling and results combined across studies by random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: The unadjusted combined correlation between DED and adiposity change was 0.06 (95%CI 0.01, 0.11; p = 0.013), but with considerable heterogeneity (I² = 52%). After bias-adjustment the pooled correlation was 0.17 (95%CI - 0.11, 0.45; p = 0.24), and the studies were apparently compatible (I² = 0%). CONCLUSIONS: This method allowed quantitative synthesis of the prospective association between DED and adiposity change in children, which is important for the development of evidence-informed policy. Bias adjustment increased the magnitude of the positive association but the widening confidence interval reflects the uncertainty of the assessed biases and implies that higher quality studies are required.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Decommissionable concrete? Adsorption of radionuclides by removable bio-mineralised hydroxyapatite layers

Decomissioning of concrete infrastructure at nuclear sites after years of use can be problematic and dangerous due to high levels of radioactivity, penetration of contamination into concrete and potentially large volumes of contaminated material. The depth of contamination within concrete ranges from mm to cm and contain many radioactive isotopes types such as C, U, Pu, Sr and Cs. Before decommissioning, concrete structures must be surface decontaminated to minimize waste volumes and reduce hazard. Techniques normally applied involve mechanical scabbing/scraping and high pressure blasting of concrete to remove layers of contamination. These techniques are expensive, unsafe for workers, and risk the spread of radioactive contamination. In addressing the above issues, this project aims to develop a novel decommissionable concrete tailored for safe, rapid decommissioning with minimal waste. Previous work in our group has shown that under certain conditions, bacteria can make bio-mineralized hydroxyapatite (HAp) which form layers as surfaces on cement [1]. The Ca from the HAp can substitute for other cations and we hypothesize that this mechanism would be relevant for radioactive isotopes such as Sr2+ and Cs+ and UO22+, by bonding to PO43-. These HAp layers can be engineered for easy removal at the end of life. Our poster presents promising results of the first stage in developing the adsorptive layer of hydroxyapatite (HAp) and show its powerful adsorptive properties for ions such as Sr2+ and Cs+ with promise for UO22+

Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Mortality: Response to Enstrom's Reanalysis of the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II Cohort

The first analysis of long-term exposures to air pollution and risk of mortality using the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II (ACS CPS-II) cohort was published in 1995.1 Subsequently, extensive independent reanalysis2 and multiple extended analyses3-7 were conducted. These studies have consistently demonstrated that exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5) is associated with increased risk of mortality, especially cardiopulmonary or cardiovascular disease mortality. A recent analysis by Enstrom, based on early data from the ACS CPS-II cohort, reports no significant relationship between PM2.5 and total mortality.8 The author asserts that the original analyses, reanalyses, and the extended analyses found positive PM2.5–mortality relationships because of selective use of CPS-II and PM2.5 data

Ambient Air Pollution and Cancer Mortality in the Cancer Prevention Study II

BACKGROUND: The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified both outdoor air pollution and airborne particulate matter as carcinogenic to humans (Group 1) for lung cancer. There may be associations with cancer at other sites; however, the epidemiological evidence is limited. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to clarify whether ambient air pollution is associated with specific types of cancer other than lung cancer by examining associations of ambient air pollution with nonlung cancer death in the Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II). METHODS: Analysis included 623,048 CPS-II participants who were followed for 22 y (1982-2004). Modeled estimates of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5microm (PM2.5) (1999-2004), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (2006), and ozone (O3) (2002-2004) concentrations were linked to the participant residence at enrollment. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate associations per each fifth percentile-mean increment with cancer mortality at 29 anatomic sites, adjusted for individual and ecological covariates. RESULTS: We observed 43,320 nonlung cancer deaths. PM2.5 was significantly positively associated with death from cancers of the kidney {adjusted hazard ratio (HR) per 4.4 mug/m3=1.14 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03, 1.27]} and bladder [HR=1.13 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.23)]. NO2 was positively associated with colorectal cancer mortality [HR per 6.5 ppb=1.06 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.10). The results were similar in two-pollutant models including PM2.5 and NO2 and in three-pollutant models with O3. We observed no statistically significant positive associations with death from other types of cancer based on results from adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this large prospective study suggest that ambient air pollution was not associated with death from most nonlung cancers, but associations with kidney, bladder, and colorectal cancer death warrant further investigation. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1249