Rubidium in the Interstellar Medium

We present observations of interstellar rubidium toward o Per, zeta Per, AE Aur, HD 147889, chi Oph, zeta Oph, and 20 Aql. Theory suggests that stable 85Rb and long-lived 87Rb are produced predominantly by high-mass stars, through a combination of the weak s- and r-processes. The 85Rb/87Rb ratio was determined from measurements of the Rb I line at 7800 angstroms and was compared to the solar system meteoritic ratio of 2.59. Within 1-sigma uncertainties all directions except HD 147889 have Rb isotope ratios consistent with the solar system value. The ratio toward HD 147889 is much lower than the meteoritic value and similar to that toward rho Oph A (Federman et al. 2004); both lines of sight probe the Rho Ophiuchus Molecular Cloud. The earlier result was attributed to a deficit of r-processed 85Rb. Our larger sample suggests instead that 87Rb is enhanced in these two lines of sight. When the total elemental abundance of Rb is compared to the K elemental abundance, the interstellar Rb/K ratio is significantly lower than the meteoritic ratio for all the sight lines in this study. Available interstellar samples for other s- and r- process elements are used to help interpret these results.Comment: 24 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

The Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement in George W. Bush’s ‘War on Terrorism’ Rhetoric.

Despite considerable literature on the Bush administration’s war on terrorism rhetoric, little attention has been paid to its discourse of moral disengagement, leaving an important and still relevant gap that this paper aims to address. Rather than approaching this gap in terms of an archival historical analysis that is disconnected from the present, it proposes an exploratory revisit of the rhetoric that the benefits of hindsight might enrich and, we argue, aid in understanding connections to the current post-invasion turmoil and the gradual ISIS takeover. Having subjected nineteen presidential speeches to qualitative content analysis, we identified a number of moral disengagement mechanisms: moral justification, advantageous comparisons, and attribution of blame, dehumanisation of the enemy, the use of sanitizing language, diffusion of responsibility and minimization of harm. We also identified novel themes relating to American excellence/patriotism, religious ideals and fear- arousing appeals, offering original contributions to the existing literature and advancing our understanding of dynamic, real-world, and highest stakes moral disengagement whose parallels can be identified in today’s political discourses. The detailed analysis unveils the apparent paradox of propagating moral disengagement through a thread of arguments that interweave diversity with uniformity, complexity with simplicity, in effect alerting the reader to the processes of moral desensitisation that the past, current and future “warmongering” political discourses may often rely upon

What topics should we teach the parents of admitted neonates in the newborn care unit in the resource-limited setting - a Delphi study

BACKGROUND: In resource-limited settings, such as Rwanda, health care profession (HCP) to neonate ratios are low, and therefore caregivers play a significant role in providing care for their admitted neonates. To provide such Family Integrated Care, caregivers need knowledge, skills, and confidence. The objective of this study was to identify consensus from key stakeholders regarding the priority topics for a "parental neonatal curriculum." METHODS: A three-round Delphi-study was conducted. During Round-1, face-to-face interviews were undertaken and responses coded and categorized into themes. In Round-2, participants were presented with Round-1 feedback and asked to provide additional topics in respective themes. In Round-3, respondents were asked to rank the importance of these items using a 9-point Likert scale. RESULTS: Ten, 36 and 40 stakeholders participated in Rounds-1, - 2 and - 3 respectively, including parents, midwives, nurses and physicians. Twenty and 37 education topics were identified in Rounds-1 and -2 respectively. In Round-3 47 of the 57 presented outcomes met pre-defined criteria for inclusion in the "parental neonatal curriculum." CONCLUSION: We describe a "parental neonatal curriculum," formed using robust consensus methods, describing the core topics required to educate parents of neonates admitted to a newborn care unit. The curriculum has been developed in Rwanda and is relevant to other resource-limited settings

Declining Public Awareness of Heart Attack Warning Symptoms in the Years Following an Australian Public Awareness Campaign: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The National Heart Foundation of Australia's (NHFA) Warning Signs campaign ran between 2010 and 2013. This study examines trends in Australian adults’ ability to name heart attack symptoms during the campaign and in the years following. Methods: Using the NHFA's HeartWatch data (quarterly online surveys) for adults aged 30–59 years, we conducted an adjusted piecewise regression analysis comparing trends in the ability to name symptoms during the campaign period plus one year lag (2010–2014) to the post-campaign period (2015–2020) Results: Over the study period, there were 101,936 Australian adults surveyed. Symptom awareness was high or increased during the campaign period. However, there was a significant downward trend in each year following the campaign period for most symptoms (e.g., chest pain: adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =0.91, 95%CI: 0.56–0.80; arm pain: AOR=0.92, 95%CI: 0.90–0.94). Conversely, the inability to name any heart attack symptom increased in each year following the campaign (3.7% in 2010 to 19.9% in 2020; AOR=1.13, 95%CI: 1.10–1.15); these respondents were more likely to be younger, male, have less than 12 years of education, identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples, speak a language other than English at home and have no cardiovascular risk factors. Conclusion: Awareness of heart attack symptoms has decreased in the years since the Warning Signs campaign in Australia, with 1 in 5 adults currently unable to name a single heart attack symptom. New approaches are needed to promote and sustain this knowledge, and to ensure people act appropriately and promptly if symptoms occur

Interstellar Carbon in Translucent Sightlines

We report interstellar C II column densities or upper limits determined from weak absorption of the 2325.4029 A intersystem transition observed in six translucent sightlines with STIS. The sightlines sample a wide range of interstellar characteristics including total-to-selective extinction, R_{V} = 2.6 - 5.1; average hydrogen density along the sightline, = 3 - 14 cm^{-3}; and fraction of H in molecular form, 0 - 40%. Four of the sightlines, those toward HD 37021, HD 37061, HD 147888 and HD 207198, have interstellar gas-phase abundances that are consistent with the diffuse sightline ratio of 161 +/- 17 carbon atoms in the gas per million hydrogen nuclei. We note that while it has a gas-phase carbon abundance that is consistent with the other sightlines, a large fraction of the C II toward HD 37061 is in an excited state. The sightline toward HD 152590 has a measured interstellar gas-phase carbon abundance that is well above the diffuse sightline average; the column density of C in this sightline may be overestimated due to noise structure in the data. Toward HD 27778 we find a 3 sigma abundance upper limit of <108 C atoms in the gas per million H, a substantially enhanced depletion of C as compared to the diffuse sightline value. The interstellar characteristics toward HD 27778 are otherwise not extreme among the sample except for an unusually large abundance of CO molecules in the gas.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

A conceptual design study of the reusable reentry satellite

Experimentation leading to an understanding of life processes under reduced and extremely low gravitational forces will profoundly contribute to the success of future space missions involving humans. In addition to research on gravitational biology, research on the effects of cosmic radiation and the interruption and change of circadian rhythms on life systems is also of prime importance. Research in space, however, is currently viewed by biological scientists as an arena that is essential, yet largely inaccessible to them for their experimentation. To fulfill this need, a project and spacecraft system described as the Reusuable Reentry Satellite or Lifesat has been proposed by NASA

Investigating the other race effect: Human and computer face matching and similarity judgements

The other race effect (ORE) in part describes how people are poorer at identifying faces of other races compared to own-race faces. While well-established with face memory, more recent studies have begun to demonstrate its presence in face matching tasks, with minimal memory requirements. However, several of these studies failed to compare both races of faces and participants in order to fully test the predictions of the ORE. Here, we utilised images of both Black and White individuals, and Black and White participants, as well as tasks measuring perceptions of face matching and similarity. In addition, human judgements were directly compared with computer algorithms. First, we found only partial support for an ORE in face matching. Second, a deep convolutional neural network (residual network with 29 layers) performed exceptionally well with both races. The DCNN’s representations were strongly associated with human perceptions. Taken together, we found that the ORE was not robust or compelling in our human data, and was absent in the computer algorithms we tested. We discuss our results in the context of ORE literature, and the importance of state-of-the-art algorithms

Cardiomyocyte Ca2+ handling and structure is regulated by degree and duration of mechanical load variation

Cardiac transverse (t)-tubules are altered during disease and may be regulated by stretch-sensitive molecules. The relationship between variations in the degree and duration of load and t-tubule structure remains unknown, as well as its implications for local Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release (CICR). Rat hearts were studied after 4 or 8 weeks of moderate mechanical unloading [using heterotopic abdominal heart–lung trans-plantation (HAHLT)] and 6 or 10 weeks of pressure overloading using thoracic aortic constriction. CICR, cell and t-tubule structure were assessed using confocal-microscopy, patch-clamping and scanning ion conductance microscopy. Moderate unloading was compared with severe unloading [using heart-only transplantation (HAHT)]. Mechanical unloading reduced cardiomyocyte volume in a time-dependent manner. Ca2+ release synchronicity was reduced at 8 weeks moderate unloading only. Ca2+ sparks increased in frequency and duration at 8 weeks of moderate unloading, which also induced t-tubule disorganization. Overloading increased cardiomyocyte volume and disrupted t-tubule mor-phology at 10 weeks but not 6 weeks. Moderate mechanical unloading for 4 weeks had milder effects compared with severe mechanical unloading (37 % reduction in cell volume at 4 weeks compared to 56 % reduction after severe mechanical unloading) and did not cause depres-sion and delay of the Ca2+ transient, increased Ca2+ spark frequency or impaired t-tubule and cell surface structure. These data suggest that variations in chronic mechanical load influence local CICR and t-tubule structure in a time- and degree-dependent manner, and that physiologi-cal states of increased and reduced cell size, without pathological changes are possible

First urology simulation boot camp in the United Kingdom

Objective: Simulation is now firmly established in modern surgical training and is applicable not only to acquiring surgical skills but also to non-surgical skills and professionalism. A 5-day intensive Urology Simulation Boot Camp was run to teach emergency procedural skills, clinical reasoning, and communication skills using clinical scenario simulations, endoscopic and laparoscopic trainers. This paper reports the educational value of this first urology boot camp. Subjects and methods: Sixteen urology UK trainees completed pre-course questionnaires on their operative experience and confidence level in common urological procedures. The course included seven modules covering basic scrotal procedures, laparoscopic skills, ureteroscopy, transurethral resection of the prostate and bladder tumour, green light laser prostatectomy, familiarisation with common endoscopic equipment, bladder washout to remove clots, bladder botox injection, setting up urodynamics. Emergency urological conditions were managed using scenarios on SimMan®. The main focus of the course was hands-on training using animal models, bench-top models and virtual reality simulators. Post-course assessment and feedback on the course structure and utility of knowledge gained together with a global outcome score was collected. Results: Overall all the sections of feedback received score of over 4.5/5, with the hands-on training on simulators getting the best score 4.8/5. When trainees were asked “The training has equipped me with enhanced knowledge, understanding and skills,” the average score was 4.9/5.0. The vast majority of participants felt they would recommend the boot camp to future junior trainees. Conclusion: This first UK Urology Simulation Boot Camp has demonstrated feasibility and effectiveness in enhancing trainee’s experience. Given these positive feedbacks there is a good reason to expect that future courses will improve the overall skills of a new urology trainee

Interstellar Dust Close to the Sun

The low density interstellar medium (ISM) close to the Sun and inside of the heliosphere provides a unique laboratory for studying interstellar dust grains. Grain characteristics in the nearby ISM are obtained from observations of interstellar gas and dust inside of the heliosphere and the interstellar gas towards nearby stars. Comparison between the gas composition and solar abundances suggests that grains are dominated by olivines and possibly some form of iron oxide. Measurements of the interstellar Ne/O ratio by the Interstellar Boundary Explorer spacecraft indicate that a high fraction of interstellar oxygen in the ISM must be depleted onto dust grains. Local interstellar abundances are consistent with grain destruction in ~150 km/s interstellar shocks, provided that the carbonaceous component is hydrogenated amorphous carbon and carbon abundances are correct. Variations in relative abundances of refractories in gas suggest variations in the history of grain destruction in nearby ISM. The large observed grains, > 1 micron, may indicate a nearby reservoir of denser ISM. Theoretical three-dimensional models of the interaction between interstellar dust grains and the solar wind predict that plumes of about 0.18 micron dust grains form around the heliosphere.Comment: 2011 AGOS Taiwan meeting; accepted for publication in Earth, Planets and Spac