The mental cost of job loss: assessing the impact on young adults in Vietnam

We exploit the extensive job loss associated with the devastating fourth wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam to examine the impact of unemployment on young people's experiences of anxiety and depression. Using data from a longitudinal study with individual and survey-wave fixed effects, we show that job loss significantly increases levels of anxiety, but not depression. Specifically, job loss leads to a 5.9 percentage point increase in the probability of experiencing symptoms consistent with either mild or severe anxiety, almost doubling the pre-wave baseline. This effect is driven by individuals in the top earnings tercile who no longer live in their natal household - suggesting that the impact of job loss on anxiety is most acute among young people who are under pressure as the primary earners in their household. Perceived financial strain and food insecurity explain up to 22% of the estimated increase in anxiety. Our results support expanding mental health programmes to explicitly target young adults who have lost their job

Detection Techniques of Microsecond Gamma-Ray Bursts using Ground-Based Telescopes

Gamma-ray observations above 200 MeV are conventionally made by satellite-based detectors. The EGRET detector on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) has provided good sensitivity for the detection of bursts lasting for more than 200 ms. Theoretical predictions of high-energy gamma-ray bursts produced by quantum-mechanical decay of primordial black holes (Hawking 1971) suggest the emission of bursts on shorter time scales. The final stage of a primordial black hole results in a burst of gamma-rays, peaking around 250 MeV and lasting for a tenth of a microsecond or longer depending on particle physics. In this work we show that there is an observational window using ground-based imaging Cherenkov detectors to measure gamma-ray burst emission at energies E greater than 200 MeV. This technique, with a sensitivity for bursts lasting nanoseconds to several microseconds, is based on the detection of multi-photon-initiated air showers.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

SGARFACE: A Novel Detector For Microsecond Gamma Ray Bursts

The Short GAmma Ray Front Air Cherenkov Experiment (SGARFACE) is operated at the Whipple Observatory utilizing the Whipple 10m gamma-ray telescope. SGARFACE is sensitive to gamma-ray bursts of more than 100MeV with durations from 100ns to 35us and provides a fluence sensitivity as low as 0.8 gamma-rays per m^2 above 200MeV (0.05 gamma-rays per m^2 above 2GeV) and allows to record the burst time structure.Comment: 29 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physic

Mass Loss, Destruction and Detection of Sun-grazing and -impacting Cometary Nuclei

[Abridged] Sun-grazing comets almost never re-emerge, but their sublimative destruction near the sun has only recently been observed directly, while chromospheric impacts have not yet been seen, nor impact theory developed. Employing simple analytic models to describe comet destruction near the Sun and to enable the estimation of observable signatures, we find analytic solutions for the mass as a function of distance from the Sun, for insolation sublimation, impact ablation and explosion. Sun-grazers are found to fall into three regimes based on initial mass and perihelion: sublimation-, ablation-, and explosion-dominated. Most sun-grazers are destroyed sublimatively, and our analytic results are similar to numerical models. Larger masses (>10^11g) with small perihelion (q<1.01Rsun) ablation dominates but results are sensitive to nucleus strength, Pc, and entry angle to the vertical, phi. Nuclei with initial mass >~10^10g (Pc/10^6 (dyne/cm^2) sec (phi))^3 are fully ablated before exploding, though the hot wake itself explodes. For most sun-impactors sec(phi)~1. For small perihelion the ablation regime applies to moderate masses ~10^13-16 g impactors unless Pc is very low. For higher masses, or smaller perihelia, nuclei reach higher densities where ram pressure causes catastrophic explosion. For perihelion 10^11 g nuclei are destroyed by ablation or explosion (depending on phi and Pc) in the chromosphere, producing flare-like events with cometary abundance spectra. For all plausible masses and physical parameters, nuclei are destroyed above the photosphere.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, Accepted A&

UNLV College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

Each morning I wound my way up the steep hill along the deeply rutted dirt path, exchanging daily maaa\u27s with five bleating sheep and shouting out, ¡Hola! in response to the children who gleefully identified me as ¡Gringa! Women and children, colorful bowls of cooked maize balanced atop their heads, sauntered to and from Maria Elena\u27s where their maize would be ground; at home the dough would be shaped and flattened into tortillas, the mainstay of every meal in the small Guatemalan village of San Juan

A Complete Expression Profile of Matrix-Degrading Metalloproteinases in Dupuytren’s Disease

Dupuytren’s disease (DD) is a common fibrotic condition of the palmar fascia, leading to deposition of collagen-rich cords and finger contractions. The metzincin superfamily contains key enzymes in the turnover of collagen and other extracellular matrix macromolecules. A number of broad-spectrum matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors, used in cancer clinical trials, caused side effects of DD-like contractures. We tested the hypothesis that changes in the expression of specific metalloproteinases underlie or contribute to the fibrosis and contracture seen in DD. We collected tissue from patients with DD and used normal palmar fascia as a control. We profiled the expression of the entire matrix metalloproteinase (MMP), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP), and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain with thrombospondin motif (ADAMTS) gene families in these tissues using real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. A number of metalloproteinases and inhibitors are regulated in DD. The expression of 3 key collagenases, MMP1, MMP13, and MMP14 is increased significantly in the DD nodule, as is the expression of the collagen biosynthetic enzyme ADAMTS14. The expression of MMP7, an enzyme with broad substrate specificity, is increased in the DD nodule and remains equally expressed in the DD cord. TIMP1 expression is increased significantly in DD nodule compared with normal palmar fascia. This study measured the expression of all MMP, ADAMTS, and TIMP genes in DD. Contraction and fibrosis may result from: (1) increased collagen biosynthesis mediated by increased ADAMTS-14; (2) an increased level of TIMP-1 blocking MMP-1– and MMP-13–mediated collagenolysis; and (3) contraction enabled by MMP-14–mediated pericellular collagenolysis (and potentially MMP-7), which may escape inhibition by TIMP-1. The complete expression profile will provide a knowledge-based approach to novel therapeutics targeting these genes

Cyclic Variability of the Circumstellar Disc of the Be Star ζ\zeta Tau. II. Testing the 2D Global Disc Oscillation Model

Aims. In this paper we model, in a self-consistent way, polarimetric, photometric, spectrophotometric and interferometric observations of the classical Be star $\zeta$ Tauri. Our primary goal is to conduct a critical quantitative test of the global oscillation scenario. Methods. We have carried out detailed three-dimensional, NLTE radiative transfer calculations using the radiative transfer code HDUST. For the input for the code we have used the most up-to-date research on Be stars to include a physically realistic description for the central star and the circumstellar disc. We adopt a rotationally deformed, gravity darkened central star, surrounded by a disc whose unperturbed state is given by a steady-state viscous decretion disc model. We further assume that disc is in vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. Results. By adopting a viscous decretion disc model for $\zeta$ Tauri and a rigorous solution of the radiative transfer, we have obtained a very good fit of the time-average properties of the disc. This provides strong theoretical evidence that the viscous decretion disc model is the mechanism responsible for disc formation. With the global oscillation model we have successfully fitted spatially resolved VLTI/AMBER observations and the temporal V/R variations of the H$\alpha$ and Br$\gamma$ lines. This result convincingly demonstrates that the oscillation pattern in the disc is a one-armed spiral. Possible model shortcomings, as well as suggestions for future improvements, are also discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, accepted to A&

Surveyor surface sampler instrument

Operational capabilities, methods of deployment command and control, areas of lunar operation, and television viewability of Surveyor lunar surface sampler instrumen