The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Factors Influencing Future Canopy Composition at Tiromoana Bush, North Canterbury, New Zealand

The purpose of this study was to investigate seedling recruitment beneath kanuka forest at Tiromoana Bush, North Canterbury. The regeneration of broadleaved tree species is evident throughout Tiromoana Bush. This research aimed to quantify the biotic and abiotic factors influencing the distribution of small and large seedlings of canopy tree species, their relative growth rates, their survival, abundance and composition throughout the forest understorey of Tiromoana Bush. Tiromoana Bush is a forest restoration area of 410 hectares adjacent to the Kate Valley landfill. To determine the future tree species composition at Tiromoana Bush, seedling recruitment, growth and survival was quantified through remeasuring tagged seedlings in 26 permanent vegetation monitoring plots located in the major forest patches at Tiromoana Bush. In addition, seedling data from 78 temporary vegetation survey plots established in three major forest patches were used to assess the influence of different factors on seedling abundance. At Tiromoana Bush, the most common canopy tree species as seedlings in the permanent vegetation monitoring plots was mahoe followed by fivefinger. Mahoe seedling density was significantly affected by canopy openness, distance to seed sources, light index, shrub cover and slope, but not by aspect, basal area and time. For fivefinger, seedlings increased in abundance with time, but the difference was not statistically significant. The relative growth rate of mahoe in the 20-49cm height class (in which most seedlings occurred) was significantly affected by shrub cover, light index and canopy vii openness. Mahoe seedling recruits were significantly affected by light index and canopy openness. Survivability of mahoe was affected by aspect. For fivefinger, individual relative growth rates were significantly affected by canopy openness and light index. Similar results were found for tree species seedlings present in the temporary survey plots provided with mahoe and fivefinger again the most common species, followed by kohuhu. Light index significantly affected golden akeake small seedlings as well as canopy openness. Light index significantly affected ngaio large seedling distribution. Aspect was the only significant factor for kohuhu large seedling distribution. Distance from seed sources significantly affected fivefinger small seedling distribution as seedlings are dependent upon dispersal away from the parent trees. Slope significantly affected the distribution of red matipou small seedlings. The most important environmental attribute influencing seedling abundance is light. This is evident in both the permanent seedling monitoring plots and the temporary vegetation survey plots. Based on data from the temporary vegetation survey plots, mahoe, fivefinger and kohuhu are most abundant suggesting that these three canopy tree species will dominate the forest canopy at Tiromoana Bush once the kanuka starts to senesce

Alpha entrainment drives pain relief using visual stimulation in a sample of chronic pain patients. A proof-of-concept controlled study.

One-third of the population in the UK and worldwide struggle with chronic pain. Entraining brain alpha activity through non-invasive visual stimulation has been shown to reduce experimental pain in healthy volunteers. Neural oscillations entrainment offers a potential non-invasive and non-pharmacological intervention for patients with chronic pain, which can be delivered in the home setting and has the potential to reduce use of medications. However, evidence supporting its use in patients with chronic pain is lacking. This study explores whether a) alpha entrainment increase alpha power in patients and b) whether this increase in alpha correlates with analgesia. 28 patients with chronic pain sat in a comfortable position and underwent 4-minute visual stimulation using customised goggles at 10 Hz (alpha) and 7 Hz (control) frequency blocks in a randomised cross-over design. 64-channel Electroencephalography (EEG) and 11-point Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) pain intensity and pain unpleasantness scores were recorded before and after stimulation. EEG analysis revealed frontal alpha power was significantly higher when stimulating at 10 Hz when compared to 7 Hz. There was a significant positive correlation between increased frontal alpha and reduction in pain intensity (r=0.33, p<0.05) and pain unpleasantness (r=0.40, p<0.05) in the 10 Hz block. This study provides the first proof of concept that changes in alpha power resulting from entrainment correlate with an analgesic response in patients with chronic pain. Further studies are warranted to investigate dose-response parameters and equivalence to analgesia provided by medications

When gas dynamics decouples from galactic rotation: characterizing ism circulation in disk galaxies

In galactic disks, galactic rotation sets the bulk motion of gas, and its energy and momentum can be transferred toward small scales. Additionally, in the interstellar medium, random and noncircular motions arise from stellar feedback, cloud-cloud interactions, and instabilities, among other processes. Our aim is to comprehend to what extent small-scale gas dynamics is decoupled from galactic rotation. We study the relative contributions of galactic rotation and local noncircular motions to the circulation of gas, Gamma, a macroscopic measure of local rotation, defined as the line integral of the velocity field around a closed path. We measure the circulation distribution as a function of spatial scale in a set of simulated disk galaxies and model the velocity field as the sum of galactic rotation and a Gaussian random field. The random field is parameterized by a broken power law in Fourier space, with a break at the scale at which galactic rotation and noncircular motions contribute equally to Gamma. For our simulated galaxies, the gas dynamics at the scale of molecular clouds is usually dominated by noncircular motions, but in the center of galactic disks galactic rotation is still relevant. Our model shows that the transfer of rotation from large scales breaks at the scale , and this transition is necessary to reproduce the circulation distribution. We find that, and therefore the structure of the gas velocity field, is set by the local conditions of gravitational stability and stellar feedback.Carnegie Institution for Science. Carnegie Sci-Comp Committee. NLHPC: ECM-02. Programa Nacional de Becas de Postgrado, CONICYT: D-21140839. Comision Nacional de Investigacion Cientifica y Tecnologica (CONICYT): Basal AFB-170002. Proyecto FONDECYT Regular grant: 1181663. European Research Council (ERC): 726384. German Research Foundation (DFG): KR4801/1-1 European Research Council (ERC): 714907. BASAL PFB-06 CATA. Anillo ACT-86. FONDEQUIP AIC-57. QUIMAL 130008

Data schemas for multiple hazards, exposure and vulnerability

Purpose – Using risk-related data often require a significant amount of upfront work to collect, extract and transform data. In addition, the lack of a consistent data structure hinders the development of tools that can be used with more than one set of data. The purpose of this paper is to report on an effort to solve these problems through the development of extensible, internally consistent schemas for risk-related data. Design/methodology/approach – The consortia coordinated their efforts so the hazard, exposure and vulnerability schemas are compatible. Hazard data can be provided as either event footprints or stochastic catalogs. Exposure classes include buildings, infrastructure, agriculture, livestock, forestry and socio-economic data. The vulnerability component includes fragility and vulnerability functions and indicators for physical and social vulnerability. The schemas also provide the ability to define uncertainties and allow the scoring of vulnerability data for relevance and quality. Findings – As a proof of concept, the schemas were populated with data for Tanzania and with exposure data for several other countries. Research limitations/implications – The data schema and data exploration tool are open source and, if widely accepted, could become widely used by practitioners. Practical implications – A single set of hazard, exposure and vulnerability schemas will not fit all purposes. Tools will be needed to transform the data into other formats. Originality/value – This paper describes extensible, internally consistent, multi-hazard, exposure and vulnerability schemas that can be used to store disaster risk-related data and a data exploration tool that promotes data discovery and use