157 research outputs found
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Integration of medical service provision and nature conservation worldwide 1980–2022: collaborative evidence mapping of 43 projects across 22 countries
Background
Biodiversity protection is fundamental to human wellbeing, and, in turn, serving human health in medically underserved areas can sometimes strengthen conservation. We aimed to collaboratively map the evidence on projects worldwide that are, or have been, providing health services with the intention of producing conservation outcomes in addition to health improvements.
Methods
Scoping indicated many NGO projects are never published in the academic literature. To avoid missing such interventions we asked conservation staff worldwide to contribute data online or through zoom calls. Advertising to join the collaboration was through formal networks (International Union for Conservation of Nature, Planetary Health Alliance, etc.), professional contacts, funders, and a call in The Lancet Planetary Health. Additionally, data and literature were synthesised from libraries and datasets of collaborators at Population Reference Bureau, Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, and Ecological Levers for Health.
Findings
Forty-three projects from 22 countries fitted inclusion criteria. Around half had not been published in the collected literature, with data only available through direct submission. Tropical wet forest was by far the most common habitat, followed by tropical dry forest, coral reefs, and tropical grasslands. The most represented region was Sub-Saharan Africa with 27 projects, followed by South-East Asia (five), South Asia (five), Oceania (two), South America (two), Central America (one), Europe (one). Projects ranged from basic health interventions bolted on to pre-existing conservation programmes to generate goodwill (e.g., vaccination rounds bordering national parks) to complex schemes jointly acting on health and biodiversity driven (and funded) by concerns for human welfare as much as conservation.
Interpretation
Synergistic action on biodiversity conservation and health service provision is very often effective and the approach is more widespread than literature would indicate. However, funding was usually provided on a siloed basis for either health or conservation, and this remains a barrier to wider adoption
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Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger
On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta
ASPECT: Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth's ConvecTion, User Manual
This is the manual of the ASPECT mantle convection cod
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A gravitational-wave standard siren measurement of the Hubble constant
On 17 August 2017, the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors observed the gravitational-wave event GW170817—a strong signal from the merger of a binary neutron-star system. Less than two seconds after the merger, a ?-ray burst (GRB 170817A) was detected within a region of the sky consistent with the LIGO–Virgo-derived location of the gravitational-wave. This sky region was subsequently observed by optical astronomy facilities, resulting in the identification of an optical transient signal within about ten arcseconds of the galaxy NGC 4993. This detection of GW170817 in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves represents the first ‘multi-messenger’ astronomical observation. Such observations enable GW170817 to be used as a ‘standard siren’ (meaning that the absolute distance to the source can be determined directly from the gravitational-wave measurements) to measure the Hubble constant. This quantity represents the local expansion rate of the Universe, sets the overall scale of the Universe and is of fundamental importance to cosmology. Here we report a measurement of the Hubble constant that combines the distance to the source inferred purely from the gravitational-wave signal with the recession velocity inferred from measurements of the redshift using the electromagnetic data. In contrast to previous measurements, ours does not require the use of a cosmic ‘distance ladder’: the gravitational-wave analysis can be used to estimate the luminosity distance out to cosmological scales directly, without the use of intermediate astronomical distance measurements. We determine the Hubble constant to be about 70 kilometres per second per megaparsec. This value is consistent with existing measurements, while being completely independent of them. Additional standard siren measurements from future gravitational wave sources will enable the Hubble constant to be constrained to high precision
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A search for new physics in dijet mass and angular distributions in ppcollisions at vs=7 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector
A search for new interactions and resonances produced in LHC proton-proton (pp) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy vs = 7 TeV was performed with the ATLAS detector. Using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 36 pb -1, dijet mass and angular distributions were measured up to dijet masses of ~3.5TeV and were found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions. This analysis sets limits at 95% CL on various models for new physics: an excited quark is excluded for mass between 0.60 and 2.64 TeV, an axigluon hypothesis is excluded for axigluon masses between 0.60 and 2.10 TeV and quantum black holes are excluded in models with six extra space-time dimensions for quantum gravity scales between 0.75 and 3.67 TeV. Production cross section limits as a function of dijet mass are set using a simplified Gaussian signal model to facilitate comparisons with other hypotheses. Analysis of the dijet angular distribution using a novel technique simultaneously employing the dijet mass excludes quark contact interactions with a compositeness scale A below 9.5 TeV
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Search for B -L R-parity-violating top squarks in vs=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS experiment
A search is presented for the direct pair production of the stop, the supersymmetric partner of the top quark, that decays through an R-parity-violating coupling to a final state with two leptons and two jets, at least one of which is identified as a b-jet. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of vs=13 TeV, collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. No significant excess is observed over the Standard Model background, and exclusion limits are set on stop pair production at a 95% confidence level. Lower limits on the stop mass are set between 600 GeV and 1.5 TeV for branching ratios above 10% for decays to an electron or muon and a b-quark
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Search for supersymmetry in events with b-tagged jets and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at vs = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
A search for the supersymmetric partners of the Standard Model bottom and top quarks is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb-1 of pp collision data at vs = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Direct production of pairs of bottom and top squarks (b˜1 and t˜1) is searched for in final states with b-tagged jets and missing transverse momentum. Distinctive selections are defined with either no charged leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state, or one charged lepton. The zero-lepton selection targets models in which the b˜1 is the lightest squark and decays via b˜1 ? b?˜01 , where ˜?01 is the lightest neutralino. The one-lepton final state targets models where bottom or top squarks are produced and can decay into multiple channels, b˜1 ? b?˜01 and b˜1 ? t?˜±1, or t˜1 ? t?˜01 and t˜1? b?˜±1, where ˜?±1 is the lightest chargino and the mass difference m?˜±1 - m?˜01 is set to 1 GeV. No excess above the expected Standard Model background is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level on the mass of third-generation squarks are derived in various supersymmetry-inspired simplified models
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Search for direct top squark pair production in events with a Higgs or Z boson, and missing transverse momentum in vs = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for direct top squark pair production resulting in events with either a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair with invariant mass compatible with a Z boson or a pair of jets compatible with a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson (h) is presented. Requirements on the missing transverse momentum, together with additional selections on leptons, jets, jets identified as originating from b-quarks are imposed to target the other decay products of the top squark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at v s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015–2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb-1. No excess is observed in the data with respect to the SM predictions. The results are interpreted in two sets of models. In the first set, direct production of pairs of lighter top squarks (t˜1) with long decay chains involving Z or Higgs bosons is considered. The second set includes direct pair production of the heavier top squark pairs (t˜2) decaying via t˜2 ? Zt˜1 or t˜2 ? ht˜1. The results exclude at 95% confidence level t˜2 and t˜1 masses up to about 800 GeV, extending the exclusion region of supersymmetric parameter space covered by previous LHC searches
Mothers After Gestational Diabetes in Australia Diabetes Prevention Program (MAGDA-DPP) post-natal intervention: an update to the study protocol for a randomized controlled trial
Mothers After Gestational Diabetes in Australia Diabetes Prevention Program (MAGDA-DPP) post-natal intervention: an update to the study protocol for a randomized controlled tria
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Search for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in final states with two or three leptons at vs=1113 TeV with the ATLAS detector
A search for the electroweak production of charginos, neutralinos and sleptons decaying into final states involving two or three electrons or muons is presented. The analysis is based on 36.1 fb-1 of vs = 13 TeV proton– proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Several scenarios based on simplified models are considered. These include the associated production of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino, followed by their decays into final states with leptons and the lightest neutralino via either sleptons or Standard Model gauge bosons; direct production of chargino pairs, which in turn decay into leptons and the lightest neutralino via intermediate sleptons; and slepton pair production, where each slepton decays directly into the lightest neutralino and a lepton. No significant deviations from the Standard Model expectation are observed and stringent limits at 95% confidence level are placed on the masses of relevant supersymmetric particles in each of these scenarios. For a massless lightest neutralino, masses up to 580 GeV are excluded for the associated production of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino, assuming gauge-boson mediated decays, whereas for slepton-pair production masses up to 500 GeV are excluded assuming three generations of massdegenerate sleptons
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