Looking for Stars and Finding the Moon: Effects of Lunar Gamma-ray Emission on Fermi LAT Light Curves

We are conducting a search for new gamma-ray binaries by making high signal-to-noise light curves of all cataloged Fermi LAT sources and searching for periodic variability using appropriately weighted power spectra. The light curves are created using a variant of aperture photometry where photons are weighted by the probability that they came from the source of interest. From this analysis we find that the light curves of a number of sources near the ecliptic plane are contaminated by gamma-ray emission from the Moon. This shows itself as modulation on the Moon's sidereal period in the power spectra. We demonstrate that this contamination can be removed by excluding times when the Moon was too close to a source. We advocate that this data screening should generally be used when analyzing LAT data from a source located close to the path of the Moon.Comment: 2012 Fermi Symposium proceedings - eConf C12102

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500 Computing Tips for Teachers and Lecturers by Phil Race and Steve McDowell, London: Kogan Page, 1996. ISBN: 0–7494–1931–8. 135 pages, paperback. £15.99

Palliative care professional education via video conference builds confidence to deliver palliative care in rural and remote locations

BACKGROUND: People living in rural and remote locations are disadvantaged in accessing palliative care. This can be attributed to several factors including the role diversity and the low numbers of patients with specific conditions, as well as the difficulties rural health practitioners have in accessing opportunities for professional education. A program of multidisciplinary palliative care video conferences was presented to health practitioners across part of northern Australia in an effort to address this problem. METHOD: The educational content of the video conferences was developed from participant responses to an educational needs assessment. Following cycles of four consecutive video conferences, 101 participants completed evaluative on-line surveys. The quantitative data were analysed using frequencies and analysis of variance tests with post-hoc analyses where appropriate, and an accessibility and remoteness index was used to classify their practice location. RESULTS: All participants found the content useful regardless of their remoteness from the tertiary centre, their years of experience caring for palliative care patients or the number of patients cared for each year. However, change in confidence to provide palliative care as a result of attending the video conferences was significant across all disciplines, regardless of location. Doctors, medical students and allied health professionals indicated the greatest change in confidence. CONCLUSIONS: The provision of professional education about palliative care issues via multidisciplinary video conferencing increased confidence among rural health practitioners, by meeting their identified need for topic and context specific education. This technology also enhanced the networking opportunities between practitioners, providing an avenue of ongoing professional support necessary for maintaining the health workforce in rural and remote areas. However, more attention should be directed to the diverse educational needs of allied health professionals

WORKPLACE LACTATION SUPPORT AND BREASTFEEDING PRACTICES IN EMPLOYED MOTHERS

Low rates of breastfeeding are a global public health issue. Despite national and international health agency recommendations for breastfeeding until infants are six months of age when solid foods are introduced and continued breastfeeding until 12 months of age or older, many mothers in the United States discontinue breastfeeding at an early age. Return to work after childbirth is one of the leading contributing factors to early cessation of breastfeeding in employed mothers. Understanding the association between individual and organizational factors and breastfeeding practices in employed mothers is essential for the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs and policies to promote, support, and encourage continued breastfeeding consistent with national and international health recommendations. The purpose of this dissertation was to: 1) review literature on the psychometric properties of existing instruments used to measure nursing mothers’ perceptions of workplace lactation support; 2) perform psychometric testing on a 9-item Breastfeeding and Employment Scale used in the Infant Feeding Practices Study II (IFPS II); and 3) examine the association between individual and organizational factors and breastfeeding practices in employed mothers who participated in the IFPS II. This dissertation has three components; a systematic review of the psychometric properties of workplace lactation support instruments; an analysis of the psychometric properties of the IFPS II Breastfeeding and Employment Scale; and a secondary analysis of the IFPS II examining individual and organizational factors associated with breastfeeding practices in employed mothers. First, a search of literature published between 1993 and May 2020 on psychometric properties of existing instruments used to measure nursing mothers’ perceptions of workplace lactation support was conducted using the electronic databases, PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO, with key words, breastfeeding AND support AND instrument”; “breastfeeding support AND workplace”; “breastfeeding AND instrument AND workplace”; “perceived AND breastfeeding support AND instrument”. Lactation was used in the place of “breastfeeding” for a repeated search. Of 26 full text eligible articles, 10 articles were included in the review. Four instruments including the 12-item Workplace Breastfeeding Support Scale (five articles); 41-item Employee Perceptions of Breastfeeding Support (two articles); 29-item Perceived Breastfeeding Assessment Tool (two articles); and 9-item IFPS II Breastfeeding and Employment Scale (one article) were identified and reviewed for scope and conceptual definitions, reliability, and validity. The modified 18-item Workplace Breastfeeding Support Scale was selected as the preferred instrument based on adequate reliability demonstrated in multiple studies, limited respondent burden and cross-cultural application outside the U.S. Additional psychometric testing and research are needed to strengthen the adaptation and applicability of the various instruments in cross-cultural settings. Next, psychometric testing was conducted on the IFPS II 9-item Breastfeeding and Employment Scale including internal consistency reliability; test-retest reliability; construct validity using factor analysis; and convergent validity of the 9-item scale and an IFPS II item measuring perceived level of breastfeeding support in the workplace. The sample was comprised of employed breastfeeding mothers in the U.S. who completed the 9-item Breastfeeding and Employment Scale and an IFPS II survey item measuring perceived level of breastfeeding support in the workplace at two time intervals (3-month [n=498] and 6-month [n=413] assessment). Kuder-Richardson 20 was used as the measure of internal consistency due to the dichotomous nature of the responses. Test-rest reliability (3- and 6-month assessments) was conducted using chi-square and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Construct validity was conducted using a tetrachoric correlational matrix. Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient was used to evaluate convergent validity to associate the 9-item Breastfeeding and Employment Scale with a survey item measuring perceived level of breastfeeding support in the workplace at the 3-month assessment (n=266). The Breastfeeding and Employment Scale was reliable and valid in a sample of employed breastfeeding mothers (N=498) in the U.S. who participated in the IFPS II. Additional testing is warranted to further evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument in cross-cultural and more diverse populations. Finally, a secondary analysis was conducted on a sample of 953 employed mothers who participated in the IFPS II to compare infant feeding status (breastfeeding/feeding pumped milk vs. not breastfeeding/feeding pumped milk) over a 12-month postpartum period. The purpose was to identify individual (e.g., prenatal infant feeding intentions and smoking status) and organizational (e.g., employment status, occupation type, and perceived level of breastfeeding support in workplace) factors, guided by the Socio-Ecological Model, associated with breastfeeding practices in a sample of employed mothers who participated in the IFPS II. At baseline (3-months postpartum survey), 57% of employed mothers were breastfeeding/feeding pumped milk. At this time point, employed breastfeeding mothers were significantly older, more likely to be married and they had higher SES compared to non-breastfeeding employed mothers; and they expressed prenatal infant feeding intentions to breastfeed only, were nonsmokers, employed part-time in a professional/executive occupation, and reported a higher level of perceived breastfeeding support in the workplace. In a subsample of employed mothers who worked either part-time (≤ 34 hours/week) or full-time (\u3e 35 hours/week) over the 12-month postpartum period (n=302), generalized linear mixed modeling (GLMM) revealed that predictors of breastfeeding over time were individual factors of prenatal breastfeeding intention and non-smoking, and organizational factors of part-time employment and perceived support for breastfeeding in the workplace. Employed mothers who were non-smokers were 291% more likely to breastfeed/feed pumped milk over the 12-month period (OR= 3.91, p \u3c 0.001) compared to smokers. Employed mothers who expressed prenatal feeding intentions to only breastfeed their infants were 953% more likely to report sustained breastfeeding over time (OR=10.53, p \u3c 0.001) compared to those who did not. In regard to organizational factors, employed mothers who were employed part-time (compared to full-time) were 97% more likely to continue breastfeed over the follow-up period (OR=1.97, p = 0.002). Finally, employed mothers who perceived high levels of breastfeeding support in the workplace (‘somewhat supportive’ or ‘very supportive’) were 178% more likely to continue breastfeeding over the 12-month follow up period compared to those with low levels of perceived breastfeeding support in the workplace (OR=2.78, p \u3c 0.001). In summary, occupational health nurses are instrumental in promoting breastfeeding supportive workplace environments. Future research is needed to examine individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy components of the Socio-Ecological Model to better understand the complex processes influencing breastfeeding continuation in employed mothers. Additional research is needed to develop, implement, and evaluate breastfeeding supportive workplace programs; guide public health policy; and better understand the relationship between multi-level factors of workplace lactation, breastfeeding practices, and maternal and child health outcomes

Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries (now replaced by EEN0508)

Using examples from more than a dozen fisheries, we highlight the failures of ‘command control’ management and show that approaches that empower fishers with the incentives and the mandate to be co-custodians of the marine environment can promote sustainability. Evidence is provided that where harvesters share well-defined management responsibilities over fish, and experience both the pain of overexploitation and the gains from conservation, they are much more likely to protect fish stocks and habitat. The key insight is that to maintain marine ecosystems for present and future generations, fishing incentives must be compatible with long-term goals of sustainability.incentives, sustainability, rights, fisheries management

Incentive-based approaches to sustainable fisheries

The failures of traditional target-species management have led many to propose an ecosystem approach to fisheries to promote sustainability. The ecosystem approach is necessary, especially to account for fishery-ecosystem interactions, but by itself is not sufficient to address two important factors contributing to unsustainable fisheries — inappropriate incentives bearing on fishers, and the ineffective governance that frequently exists in commercial, developed fisheries managed primarily by total harvest limits and input-controls. We contend that much greater emphasis must be placed on fisher motivation when managing fisheries. Using evidence from more than a dozen ‘natural experiments’ in commercial fisheries, we argue that incentive-based approaches that better specify community, individual harvest, or territorial rights and also price ecosystem services — coupled with public research, monitoring and effective oversight — promote sustainable fisheries.incentives, sustainability, rights, fisheries management

Precise Measurement of the b-Quark Fragmentation Function in Z0 Boson Decays

We have developed a new technique for inclusive reconstruction of the energy of B hadrons. The excellent efficiency and resolution of this technique allow us to make the most precise determination of the b-quark fragmentation function, using e[superscript +]e[superscript -]→Z[superscript 0] decays recorded in the SLAC Large Detector experiment. We compared our measurement with the predictions of a number of fragmentation models. We excluded several of these models and measured the average scaled energy of weakly decaying B hadrons to be 〈x[subscript B]〉 = 0.714±0.005(stat)±0.007(syst)±0.002 (model dependence).Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare of ItalyJapan-U.S. Cooperative Research Project on High Energy PhysicsDepartment of EnergyU.K. Particle Physics and Astronomy Research CouncilKorea Science and Engineering Foundatio

Gemini/GMOS Imaging of Globular Cluster Systems in Five Early-type Galaxies

This paper presents deep high quality photometry of globular cluster (GC) systems belonging to five early-type galaxies covering a range of mass and environment. Photometric data were obtained with the Gemini North and Gemini South telescopes in the filter passbands g', r', and i'. The combination of these filters with good seeing conditions allows an excellent separation between GC candidates and unresolved field objects. Bimodal GC colour distributions are found in all five galaxies. Most of the GC systems appear bimodal even in the (g' -r') vs (r' -i') plane. A population of resolved/marginally resolved GC and Ultra Compact Dwarf candidates was found in all the galaxies. A search for the so-called "blue tilt" in the colour-magnitude diagrams reveals that NGC 4649 clearly shows that phenomenon although no conclusive evidence was found for the other galaxies in the sample. This "blue tilt" translates into a mass-metallicity relation given by Z \propto M^0.28\pm0.03 . This dependence was found using a new empirical (g' -i') vs [Z/H] relation which relies on an homogeneous sample of GC colours and metallicities. This paper also explores the radial trends in both colour and surface density for the blue (metal-poor) and red (metal-rich) GC subpopulations. As usual, the red GCs show a steeper radial distribution than the blue ones. Evidence of galactocentric colour gradients is found in some of the GC systems, being more significant for the two S0 galaxies in the sample. Red GC subpopulations show similar colours and gradients to the galaxy halo stars in their inner region. A GC mean colour-galaxy luminosity relation, consistent with [Z/H] \propto L_B ^0.26\pm0.08, is present for the red GCs. An estimate of the total GC populations and specific frequency SN values is presented for NGC 3115, NGC 3379, NGC 3923 and NGC 4649.Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures and 9 tables. Tables A1 and A2 will be published in full online only. Accepted for publication in MNRA

Is Financial Reporting Shaped by Equity Markets or By Debt Markets? An International Study of Timeliness and Conservatism

We hypothesize debt markets – not equity markets – are the primary influence on “association” metrics studied since Ball and Brown (1968). Debt markets demand high scores on timeliness, conservatism and Lev’s (1989) R2, because debt covenants utilize reported numbers. Equity markets do not rate financial reporting consistently with these metrics, because (among other things) they control for the total information incorporated in equity process. Single-country studies shed little light on the relative influences of debt and equity, because their firms operate under a homogeneous reporting regime. International data are consistent with our hypothesis. This is a fundamental issue in accounting