Integrated mass transportation system study/definition/implementation program definition

Specific actions needed to plan and effect transportation system improvements are identified within the constraints of limited financial, energy and land use resources, and diverse community requirements. A specific program is described which would develop the necessary generalized methodology for devising improved transportation systems and evaluate them against specific criteria for intermodal and intramodal optimization. A consistent, generalized method is provided for study and evaluation of transportation system improvements

Learning to facilitate arts-in-health programmes: a case study of musicians facilitating creative interventions for mothers with symptoms of postnatal depression

There is growing research documenting the effects of arts-in-health interventions on diverse participant groups. However, the impact of interventions on facilitators remains largely lacking. Drawing on a case study project, this article reports on a qualitative study to understand the practices, challenges, enablers and impacts for musicians of facilitating creative interventions for women with symptoms of postnatal depression. Thematic analysis revealed that the musicians used specific practices to successfully facilitate their activities, relying on a balance of forward-planning with the need to retain flexibility and provide women with autonomy and opportunities for social bonding. Key challenges included coping with the emotional impact of the project as well as facilitating different types of creative activities, while a strong sense of team and the structure of the interventions supported delivery. Finally, the project enabled the development of both generic and context-specific creative facilitation skills, and also contributed to the facilitators’ wellbeing. The logistical, educational and support implications for other practitioners seeking to establish such interventions are considered within the context of arts-in-health and musicians’ education

How group singing facilitates recovery from the symptoms of postnatal depression: a comparative qualitative study

Background: Previous research has demonstrated that making music can enhance positive emotions as well as support positive psychological functioning. However, studies tend to be limited by lack of comparison with other psychosocial interventions. This study builds on a three-arm randomised controlled trial (RCT) that demonstrated that group singing for mothers and babies, but not group creative play, can lead to faster recovery from moderate-severe symptoms of postnatal depression than usual care. The aim was to elucidate the mechanisms of the group singing intervention in order to account for its recovery properties. Methods: Qualitative research was conducted with 54 mothers who had experienced symptoms of postnatal depression. Mothers completed a 10-week programme of either group singing or group creative play as part of the wider RCT study. Data were collected via a series of 10 semi-structured focus groups conducted at the end of each 10-week programme. These were designed to elicit subjective and constructed experiences of the singing and play interventions and were analysed inductively for emergent themes. Results: Five distinctive features of the group singing emerged: (i) providing an authentic, social and multicultural creative experience, (ii) ability to calm babies; (iii) providing immersive ‘me time’ for mothers; (iv) facilitating a sense of achievement and identity; (v) enhancing mother-infant bond. Conclusions: Community group singing interventions may reduce symptoms of postnatal depression through facilitating a functional emotional response rooted in the needs of new motherhood. These features are of relevance to others seeking to implement creative interventions for maternal mental health. Trial registration: NCT02526407. Registered 18 August 2015

Apollo 7 retrofire and reentry of service propulsion module. Further study of Intelsat 2 F-2 apogee burn

Photography of Apollo 7 retrofire and service propulsion module reentry and apogee burn of Intelsat 2 F-2 satellit

Schwannoma extending from the umbilical region to the mid-thigh, compressing the major vessels of the right leg: A case report and review of the literature

Schwannomas are benign, usually encapsulated, nerve sheath tumours derived from Schwann cells. They commonly arise from the cranial nerves as acoustic  schwannomas and are extremely rare in the pelvis and retroperitoneal area (<0.5% of reported cases) unless they are combined with Von Recklinghausen disease (type 1 neurofibromatosis). We report the case of a 23-year-old woman with a mass extending from the umbilical region in the abdomen to the upper two-thirds of the thigh. As this tumour is so rare, and in order to ensure optimal treatment and survival for our patient, a computed tomography-guided biopsy was performed before en bloc tumour excision. Because of the possibility of malignancy, complete excision of the mass was performed, with pelvic blunt dissection. Histological examination showed a benign neoplasm, originating from the cells of peripheral nerve sheaths; the diagnosis was a schwannoma. Abdominal schwannomas are rare neoplasms that can be misdiagnosed. Laparoscopy is a safe and efficient option for approaching benign pelvic tumours and may offer the advantage of better visualisation of structures owing to the magnification in laparoscopic view, especially in narrow anatomical spaces. However, in our case laparoscopy was not considered owing to the size and anatomical location of the tumour

Episodic excursions of low-mass protostars on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram

Following our recent work devoted to the effect of accretion on the pre-main-sequence evolution of low-mass stars, we perform a detailed analysis of episodic excursions of low-mass protostars in the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram triggered by strong mass accretion bursts typical of FU Orionis-type objects (FUors). These excursions reveal themselves as sharp increases in the stellar total luminosity and/or effective temperature of the protostar and can last from hundreds to a few thousands of years, depending on the burst strength and characteristics of the protostar. During the excursions, low-mass protostars occupy the same part of the H-R diagram as young intermediate-mass protostars in the quiescent phase of accretion. Moreover, the time spent by low-mass protostars in these regions is on average a factor of several longer than that spent by the intermediate-mass stars in quiescence. During the excursions, low-mass protostars pass close to the position of most known FUors in the H-R diagram, but owing to intrinsic ambiguity the model stellar evolutionary tracks are unreliable in determining the FUor properties. We find that the photospheric luminosity in the outburst state may dominate the accretion luminosity already after a few years after the onset of the outburst, meaning that the mass accretion rates of known FUors inferred from the bolometric luminosity may be systematically overestimated, especially in the fading phase.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Certainty Closure: Reliable Constraint Reasoning with Incomplete or Erroneous Data

Constraint Programming (CP) has proved an effective paradigm to model and solve difficult combinatorial satisfaction and optimisation problems from disparate domains. Many such problems arising from the commercial world are permeated by data uncertainty. Existing CP approaches that accommodate uncertainty are less suited to uncertainty arising due to incomplete and erroneous data, because they do not build reliable models and solutions guaranteed to address the user's genuine problem as she perceives it. Other fields such as reliable computation offer combinations of models and associated methods to handle these types of uncertain data, but lack an expressive framework characterising the resolution methodology independently of the model. We present a unifying framework that extends the CP formalism in both model and solutions, to tackle ill-defined combinatorial problems with incomplete or erroneous data. The certainty closure framework brings together modelling and solving methodologies from different fields into the CP paradigm to provide reliable and efficient approches for uncertain constraint problems. We demonstrate the applicability of the framework on a case study in network diagnosis. We define resolution forms that give generic templates, and their associated operational semantics, to derive practical solution methods for reliable solutions.Comment: Revised versio

Resolving the Formation of Protogalaxies. III. Feedback from the First Stars

The first stars form in dark matter halos of masses ~10^6 M_sun as suggested by an increasing number of numerical simulations. Radiation feedback from these stars expels most of the gas from their shallow potential well of their surrounding dark matter halos. We use cosmological adaptive mesh refinement simulations that include self-consistent Population III star formation and feedback to examine the properties of assembling early dwarf galaxies. Accurate radiative transport is modeled with adaptive ray tracing. We include supernova explosions and follow the metal enrichment of the intergalactic medium. The calculations focus on the formation of several dwarf galaxies and their progenitors. In these halos, baryon fractions in 10^8 solar mass halos decrease by a factor of 2 with stellar feedback and by a factor of 3 with supernova explosions. We find that radiation feedback and supernova explosions increase gaseous spin parameters up to a factor of 4 and vary with time. Stellar feedback, supernova explosions, and H_2 cooling create a complex, multi-phase interstellar medium whose densities and temperatures can span up to 6 orders of magnitude at a given radius. The pair-instability supernovae of Population III stars alone enrich the halos with virial temperatures of 10^4 K to approximately 10^{-3} of solar metallicity. We find that 40% of the heavy elements resides in the intergalactic medium (IGM) at the end of our calculations. The highest metallicity gas exists in supernova remnants and very dilute regions of the IGM.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures, accepted to ApJ. Many changes, including estimates of metal line cooling. High resolution images and movies available at http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~jwise/research/PGalaxies3