A pilot study of quality of life in German prehospital emergency care physicians

Background: Quality of life in patients represents an important area of assessment. However, attention to health professionals should be equally important. The literature on the quality of life (QOL) of emergency physicians is scarce. This pilot study investigated QOL in emergency physicians in Germany. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from January to June in 2015. We approached the German Association of Emergency Medicine Physicians and two of the largest recruitment agencies for emergency physicians in Germany and invited their members to participate. We used the WHO Q-BREF to obtain QOL scores in four domains that included physical, mental, social, and environmental health. Results: The 478 German emergency physicians included in the study held board certifications in general medicine (n = 40; 8.4), anesthesiology (n = 243; 50.8), surgery (n = 63; 13.2), internal medicine (n = 81; 17.0), or others (n = 51; 10.7). The women surveyed tended to report a better QOL but worse general health than the men. Regarding specific domains, women scored worse in physical health, particularly energy during everyday work (relative risk ratio RRR: 1.98 1.21–3.24). Both men and women scored worse in psychological health than general health, particularly young women. Women were also more likely to view their safety (RRR: 1.87 1.07–3.28) and living place (RRR: 2.51 1.10–5.73) as being poor than their male counterparts. Conclusion: QOL in German prehospital emergency care physicians is satisfactory for the included participants; however, there were some negative effects in the psychological health domain. This is particularly obvious in young female emergency physicians

The discovery of the electromagnetic counterpart of GW170817: kilonova AT 2017gfo/DLT17ck

During the second observing run of the Laser Interferometer gravitational- wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo Interferometer, a gravitational-wave signal consistent with a binary neutron star coalescence was detected on 2017 August 17th (GW170817), quickly followed by a coincident short gamma-ray burst trigger by the Fermi satellite. The Distance Less Than 40 (DLT40) Mpc supernova search performed pointed follow-up observations of a sample of galaxies regularly monitored by the survey which fell within the combined LIGO+Virgo localization region, and the larger Fermi gamma ray burst error box. Here we report the discovery of a new optical transient (DLT17ck, also known as SSS17a; it has also been registered as AT 2017gfo) spatially and temporally coincident with GW170817. The photometric and spectroscopic evolution of DLT17ck are unique, with an absolute peak magnitude of Mr = -15.8 \pm 0.1 and an r-band decline rate of 1.1mag/d. This fast evolution is generically consistent with kilonova models, which have been predicted as the optical counterpart to binary neutron star coalescences. Analysis of archival DLT40 data do not show any sign of transient activity at the location of DLT17ck down to r~19 mag in the time period between 8 months and 21 days prior to GW170817. This discovery represents the beginning of a new era for multi-messenger astronomy opening a new path to study and understand binary neutron star coalescences, short gamma-ray bursts and their optical counterparts.Comment: ApJL in press, 4 figure

An empirical limit on the kilonova rate from the DLT40 one day cadence Supernova Survey

Binary neutron star mergers are important to understand stellar evolution, the chemical enrichment of the universe via the r-process, the physics of short gamma-ray bursts, gravitational waves and pulsars. The rates at which these coalescences happen is uncertain, but it can be constrained in different ways. One of those is to search for the optical transients produced at the moment of the merging, called a kilonova, in ongoing SN searches. However, until now, only theoretical models for kilonovae light curve were available to estimate their rates. The recent kilonova discovery AT~2017gfo/DLT17ck gives us the opportunity to constrain the rate of kilonovae using the light curve of a real event. We constrain the rate of binary neutron star mergers using the DLT40 Supernova search, and the native AT~2017gfo/DLT17ck light curve obtained with the same telescope and software system. Excluding AT~2017gfo/DLT17ck due to visibility issues, which was only discovered thanks to the aLIGO/aVirgo trigger, no other similar transients detected during 13 months of daily cadence observations of $\sim$ 2200 nearby ($<$40 Mpc) galaxies. We find that the rate of BNS mergers is lower than 0.47 - 0.55 kilonovae per 100 years per $10^{10}$ $L_{B_{\odot}}$ (depending on the adopted extinction distribution). In volume, this translates to $<0.99\times 10^{-4}\,_{-0.15}^{+0.19},\rm{Mpc^{-3}}\,\rm{yr^{-1}}$(SNe Ia-like extinction distribution), consistent with previous BNS coalescence rates. Based on our rate limit, and the sensitivity of aLIGO/aVirgo during O2, it is very unlikely that kilonova events are lurking in old pointed galaxy SN search datasets.Comment: 3 figures, 2 table

1FGL J1417.7-4407: A likely gamma-ray bright binary with a massive neutron star and a giant secondary

We present multiwavelength observations of the persistent Fermi-LAT unidentified gamma-ray source 1FGL J1417.7-4407, showing it is likely to be associated with a newly discovered X-ray binary containing a massive neutron star (nearly 2 M_sun) and a ~ 0.35 M_sun giant secondary with a 5.4 day period. SOAR optical spectroscopy at a range of orbital phases reveals variable double-peaked H-alpha emission, consistent with the presence of an accretion disk. The lack of radio emission and evidence for a disk suggests the gamma-ray emission is unlikely to originate in a pulsar magnetosphere, but could instead be associated with a pulsar wind, relativistic jet, or could be due to synchrotron self-Compton at the disk--magnetosphere boundary. Assuming a wind or jet, the high ratio of gamma-ray to X-ray luminosity (~ 20) suggests efficient production of gamma-rays, perhaps due to the giant companion. The system appears to be a low-mass X-ray binary that has not yet completed the pulsar recycling process. This system is a good candidate to monitor for a future transition between accretion-powered and rotational-powered states, but in the context of a giant secondary.Comment: ApJL in pres

2FGL J0846.0+2820: A new neutron star binary with a giant secondary and variable γ\gamma-ray emission

We present optical photometric and spectroscopic observations of the likely stellar counterpart to the unassociated \emph{Fermi}-Large Area Telescope (LAT) $\gamma$-ray source 2FGL J0846.0+2820, selected for study based on positional coincidences of optical variables with unassociated LAT sources. Using optical spectroscopy from the SOAR telescope, we have identified a late-G giant in an eccentric ($e$ = 0.06) 8.133 day orbit with an invisible primary. Modeling the spectroscopy and photometry together lead us to infer a heavy neutron star primary of $\sim 2 M_{\odot}$ and a partially stripped giant secondary of $\sim 0.8 M_{\odot}$. H$\alpha$ emission is observed in some of the spectra, perhaps consistent with the presence of a faint accretion disk. We find the $\gamma$-ray flux of 2FGL J0846.0+2820 dropped substantially in mid-2009, accompanied by an increased variation in the optical brightness, and since then it has not been detected by \emph{Fermi}. The long period and giant secondary are reminiscent of the $\gamma$-ray bright binary 1FGL J1417.7--4407, which hosts a millisecond pulsar apparently in the final stages of the pulsar recycling process. The discovery of 2FGL J0846.0+2820 suggests the identification of a new subclass of millisecond pulsar binaries that are the likely progenitors of typical field millisecond pulsars.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap

Engineering Hybrid Epitaxial InAsSb/Al Nanowire Materials for Stronger Topological Protection

The combination of strong spin-orbit coupling, large $g$-factors, and the coupling to a superconductor can be used to create a topologically protected state in a semiconductor nanowire. Here we report on growth and characterization of hybrid epitaxial InAsSb/Al nanowires, with varying composition and crystal structure. We find the strongest spin-orbit interaction at intermediate compositions in zincblende InAs$_{1-x}$Sb$_{x}$ nanowires, exceeding that of both InAs and InSb materials, confirming recent theoretical studies \cite{winkler2016topological}. We show that the epitaxial InAsSb/Al interfaces allows for a hard induced superconducting gap and 2$e$ transport in Coulomb charging experiments, similar to experiments on InAs/Al and InSb/Al materials, and find measurements consistent with topological phase transitions at low magnetic fields due to large effective $g$-factors. Finally we present a method to grow pure wurtzite InAsSb nanowires which are predicted to exhibit even stronger spin-orbit coupling than the zincblende structure.Comment: 10 pages and 5 figure

The CASSOWARY spectroscopy survey: a new sample of gravitationally lensed galaxies in SDSS

Bright gravitationally lensed galaxies provide our most detailed view of galaxies at high redshift. The very brightest (r < 21) systems enable high spatial and spectral resolution measurements, offering unique constraints on the outflow energetics, metallicity gradients and stellar populations in high-redshift galaxies. Yet as a result of the small number of ultrabright z ≃ 2 lensed systems with confirmed redshifts, most detailed spectroscopic studies have been limited in their scope. With the goal of increasing the number of bright lensed galaxies available for detailed follow-up, we have undertaken a spectroscopic campaign targeting wide separation (≳3 arcsec) galaxy–galaxy lens candidates within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Building on the earlier efforts of our Cambridge and Sloan Survey Of Wide Arcs in Thesky survey, we target a large sample of candidate galaxy–galaxy lens systems in SDSS using a well-established search algorithm which identifies blue arc-like structures situated around luminous red galaxies. In this paper, we present a new redshift catalogue containing 29 lensed sources in SDSS confirmed through spectroscopic follow-up of candidate galaxy–galaxy lens systems. Included in this new sample are two of the brightest galaxies (r = 19.6 and 19.7) known at z ≃ 2, a low metallicity (12 + log (O/H) ≃ 8.0) extreme nebular line emitting galaxy at z = 1.43, and numerous systems for which detailed follow-up will be possible. The source redshifts span 0.9 < z < 2.5 (median redshift of 1.9), and their optical magnitudes are in the range 19.6 ≲ r ≲ 22.3. We present a brief source-by-source discussion of the spectroscopic properties extracted from our confirmatory spectra and discuss some initial science results. Preliminary lens modelling reveals average source magnifications of 5–10 times. With more than 50 gravitationally lensed z ≳ 1 galaxies now confirmed within SDSS, it will soon be possible for the first time to develop generalized conclusions from detailed spectroscopic studies of the brightest lensed systems at high redshift

Discovery and characterisation of dietary patterns in two Nordic countries. Using non-supervised and supervised multivariate statistical techniques to analyse dietary survey data

This Nordic study encompasses multivariate data analysis (MDA) of preschool Danish as well as pre- and elementary school Swedish consumers. Contrary to other counterparts the study incorporates two separate MDA varieties - Pattern discovery (PD) and predictive modelling (PM). PD, i.e. hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and factor analysis (using PCA), helped identifying distinct consumer aggregations and relationships across food groups, respectively, whereas PM enabled the disclosure of deeply entrenched associations. 17 clusters - here defined as dietary prototypes - were identified by means of HCA in the entire bi-national data set. These prototypes underwent further processing, which disclosed several intriguing consumption data relationships: Striking disparity between consumption patterns of Danish and Swedish preschool children was unveiled and further dissected by PM. Two prudent and mutually similar dietary prototypes appeared among each of two Swedish elementary school children data subsets. Dietary prototypes rich in sweetened soft beverages appeared among Danish and Swedish children alike. The results suggest prototype-specific risk assessment and study design