14 research outputs found
THE MEREENIE LEASE NEGOTIATIONS IN THE AMADEUS BASIN-AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
No full textFollowing the discovery of oil and gas, the Mereenie Joint Venture (MJV) applied for a production lease in November 1973. However, the Aboriginal Land Rights Act NT 1976 came into operation in January 1977 and the MJV was thereby required to negotiate with the Central Land Council in order to be granted the lease. The CLC was reluctant to proceed with negotiations because of the difficulty of identifying traditional owners. After 22 communications with the Council, the MJV grew impatient and the Northern Territory Government advised them to engage the author to assist in expediting the negotiations. After an intense period from March to November 1979 in which the traditional owners were identified and some violent exchanges occurred, agreement was reached on the financial terms. The Mereenie lease, which was the first petroleum lease on Aboriginal land, was granted on 18 November 1981. At present oil is piped to Brewer Estate in Alice Springs and then transported by rail to Port Stanvac in South Australia. Gas is transported to the Channel Island Power Station near Darwin via a 1,485 km pipeline. Aboriginal traditional owners receive royalty payments from all petroleum produced from Mereenie, in addition to sharing a 10% statutory royalty under the NT petroleum ordinance. The Mereenie agreement stands as a precursor to all agreements on Aboriginal land in central Australia.</jats:p
Association of skeletal muscle relaxers and antihistamines on mortality, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits in elderly patients: A nationwide retrospective cohort study
No full textBackground: High-risk medication exposure in the elderly is common and associated with increased mortality, hospitalizations, and emergency department (ED) visits. Skeletal muscle relaxants and antihistamines are high-risk medications commonly prescribed in elderly patients. The objective of this study was to determine the association between skeletal muscle relaxants or antihistamines and mortality, hospitalizations, and emergency department visits. Methods: This study used a new-user, retrospective cohort design using national Veteran Affairs (VA) data from 128 hospitals. Veterans ≥65 years of age on October 1, 2005 who received VA inpatient/outpatient care at least once in each of fiscal year (FY) 2005 and FY 2006 were included. Exposure to skeletal muscle relaxants and antihistamines was defined by the National Committee for Quality Assurance Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures for high-risk medications in the elderly. Primary outcomes identified within one year of exposure were death, ED visit, or hospitalization; ED visits or hospitalizations due to falls and fracture were also assessed. Propensity score matching (1 to 1 match) was used to balance covariates between exposed patients and non-exposed patients. Results: In this cohort of 1,807,404 patients 55,566 patients were included in the propensity-matched cohort for skeletal muscle relaxants and 60,058 patients were included in the propensity-matched cohort for anti-histamines. Mortality was lower in skeletal muscle relaxants-exposed patients (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.87, 95% CI 0.81-0.94), but risk of emergency care (AOR 2.25, 95% CI 2.16-2.33) and hospitalization (AOR 1.56, 95% CI 1.48-1.65) was higher for patients prescribed skeletal muscle relaxants. Similar findings were observed for emergency and hospital care for falls or fractures. Mortality (AOR 1.93, 95% CI 1.82-2.04), ED visits (AOR 2.35, 95% CI 2.27-2.43), and hospitalizations (AOR 2.21, 95% CI 2.11-2.32) were higher in the antihistamine-exposed group, with similar findings for falls and fractures outcomes. Conclusion: Skeletal muscle relaxants and antihistamines are associated with an increased risk of ED visits and hospitalizations in elderly patients. Antihistamines were also associated with an increased risk of death, further validating the classification of these drug classes as "high risk"
On the need of an ultramassive black hole in OJ 287
No full textFull list of authors: Valtonen, Mauri J.; Zola, Staszek; Gopakumar, A.; Lähteenmäki, Anne; Tornikoski, Merja; Dey, Lankeswar; Gupta, Alok C.; Pursimo, Tapio; Knudstrup, Emil; Gomez, Jose L.; Hudec, Rene; Jelínek, Martin; Štrobl, Jan; Berdyugin, Andrei V.; Ciprini, Stefano; Reichart, Daniel E.; Kouprianov, Vladimir V.; Matsumoto, Katsura; Drozdz, Marek; Mugrauer, Markus; Sadun, Alberto; Zejmo, Michal; Sillanpää, Aimo; Lehto, Harry J.; Nilsson, Kari; Imazawa, Ryo; Uemura, Makoto; Davidson, James W.The highly variable blazar OJ 287 is commonly discussed as an example of a binary black hole system. The 130 yr long optical light curve is well explained by a model where the central body is a massive black hole of 18.35 10 solar mass that supports a thin accretion disc. The secondary black hole of 0.15 10 solar mass impacts the disc twice during its 12 yr orbit, and causes observable flares. Recently, it has been argued that an accretion disc with a typical Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) accretion rate and above mentioned central body mass should be at least six magnitudes brighter than OJ 287's host galaxy and would therefore be observationally excluded. Based on the observations of OJ 287's radio jet, detailed in Marscher and Jorstad (2011), and up-to-date accretion disc models of Azadi et al. (2022), we show that the V-band magnitude of the accretion disc is unlikely to exceed the host galaxy brightness by more than one magnitude, and could well be fainter than the host. This is because accretion power is necessary to launch the jet as well as to create electromagnetic radiation, distributed across many wavelengths, and not concentrated especially on the optical V-band. Further, we note that the claimed V-band concentration of accretion power leads to serious problems while interpreting observations of other AGN. Therefore, we infer that the mass of the primary black hole and its accretion rate do not need to be smaller than what is determined in the standard model for OJ 287. © 2023 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical SocietyThis work was partly funded by Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN) grant no. 2018/29/B/ST9/01793 (SZ) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant no. 19K03930 (KM). SC acknowledges support by Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) through contract ASI-INFN 2021-43-HH.0 for SSDC, and Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN). RH acknowledges the EU project H2020 AHEAD2020, grant agreement 871158, and internal Czech Technical University (CTU) grant SGS21/120/OHK3/2T/13. ACG is partially supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President's International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI; grant no. 2016VMB073). MJV acknowledges a grant from the Finnish Society for Sciences and Letter
Compact laser accelerators for X-ray phase-contrast imaging
No full textAdvances in X-ray imaging techniques have been driven by advances in novel X-ray sources. The latest fourth-generation X-ray sources can boast large photon fluxes at unprecedented brightness. However, the large size of these facilities means that these sources are not available for everyday applications. With advances in laser plasma acceleration, electron beams can now be generated at energies comparable to those used in light sources, but in university-sized laboratories. By making use of the strong transverse focusing of plasma accelerators, bright sources of betatron radiation have been produced. Here, we demonstrate phase-contrast imaging of a biological sample for the first time by radiation generated by GeV electron beams produced by a laser accelerator. The work was performed using a greater than 300TW laser, which allowed the energy of the synchrotron source to be extended to the 10100 keV range. © 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved
The association of cardioprotective medications with pneumonia-related outcomes
No full textIntroduction: Little research has examined whether cardiovascular medications, other than statins, are associated with improved outcomes after pneumonia. Our aim was to examine the association between the use of beta-blockers, statins, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) with pneumonia-related outcomes. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective population-based study on male patients ≥65 years of age hospitalized with pneumonia and who did not have pre-existing cardiac disease. Our primary analyses were multilevel regression models that examined the association between cardiovascular medication classes and either mortality or cardiovascular events. Results: Our cohort included 21,985 patients: 22% died within 90 days of admission, and 22% had a cardiac event within 90 days. The cardiovascular medications studied that were associated with decreased 90-day mortality included: statins (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.63-0.77), ACE inhibitors (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.74-0.91), and ARBs (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.44-0.77). However, none of the medications were significantly associated with decreased cardiovascular events. Discussion: While statins, ACE inhibitors, and ARBs, were associated with decreased mortality, there was no significant association with decreased CV events. These results indicate that this decreased mortality is unlikely due to their potential cardioprotective effects
Author Correction: Laser-wakefield accelerators for high-resolution X-ray imaging of complex microstructures
No full textAn amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper
Refining the OJ 287 2022 impact flare arrival epoch
No full textValtonen, Mauri J. et al.--Full list of authors: Valtonen, Mauri J.; Zola, Staszek; Gopakumar, A.; Lahteenmaki, Anne; Tornikoski, Merja; Dey, Lankeswar; Gupta, Alok C.; Pursimo, Tapio; Knudstrup, Emil; Gomez, Jose L.; Hudec, Rene; Jelinek, Martin; Strobl, Jan; Berdyugin, Andrei, V; Ciprini, Stefano; Reichart, Daniel E.; Kouprianov, Vladimir V.; Matsumoto, Katsura; Drozdz, Marek; Mugrauer, Markus; Sadun, Alberto; Zejmo, Michal; Sillanpaa, Aimo; Lehto, Harry J.; Nilsson, Kari; Imazawa, Ryo; Uemura, MakotoThe bright blazar OJ 287 routinely parades high brightness bremsstrahlung flares, which are explained as being a result of a secondary supermassive black hole (SMBH) impacting the accretion disc of a more massive primary SMBH in a binary system. The accretion disc is not rigid but rather bends in a calculable way due to the tidal influence of the secondary. Next, we refer to this phenomenon as a variable disc level. We begin by showing that these flares occur at times predicted by a simple analytical formula, based on general relativity inspired modified Kepler equation, which explains impact flares since 1888. The 2022 impact flare, namely flare number 26, is rather peculiar as it breaks the typical pattern of two impact flares per 12-yr cycle. This is the third bremsstrahlung flare of the current cycle that follows the already observed 2015 and 2019 impact flares from OJ 287. It turns out that the arrival epoch of flare number 26 is sensitive to the level of primary SMBH’s accretion disc relative to its mean level in our model. We incorporate these tidally induced changes in the level of the accretion disc to infer that the thermal flare should have occurred during 2022 July–August, when it was not possible to observe it from the Earth. Thereafter, we explore possible observational evidence for certain pre-flare activity by employing spectral and polarimetric data from our campaigns in 2004/05 and 2021/22. We point out theoretical and observational implications of two observed mini-flares during 2022 January–February. © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.Data from the Steward Observatory spectropolarimetric monitoring project were used. This program is supported by Fermi Guest Investigator grants: NNX08AW56G, NNX09AU10G, NNX12AO93G, and NNX15AU81G. We are grateful to S. Komossa and D. Grupe for providing information on the Swift data, presented in this paper, that comes from their MOMO observing programme, and for valuable discussions. We also thank Helen Jermak and Callum McCall for providing polarization data prior to publication. This work was partly funded by NCN grant No. 2018/29/B/ST9/01793 (SZ) and JSPS KAKENHI grant No. 19K03930 (KM). Part of this work is based on archival data, software or online services, provided by the Space Science Data Center, SSDC, of the Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI). SC acknowledges support by ASI through contract ASI-INFN 2021-43-HH.0 for SSDC, and Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN). This paper uses data obtained at Metsähovi Radio Observatory, operated by Aalto University in Finland. RH acknowledges the EU project H2020 AHEAD2020, grant agreement 871158, and internal CTU grant SGS21/120/OHK3/2T/13. ACG is partially supported by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) (grant no. 2016VMB073). MJV acknowledges a grant from the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.Peer reviewe
Disparities of Care for African-Americans and Caucasians with Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Retrospective Cohort Study
No full textBackground\ud
African-Americans admitted to U.S. hospitals with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) are more likely than Caucasians to experience prolonged hospital length of stay (LOS), possibly due to either differential treatment decisions or patient characteristics.\ud
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Methods\ud
We assessed associations between race and outcomes (Intensive Care Unit [ICU] variables, LOS, 30-day mortality) for African-American or Caucasian patients over 65 years hospitalized in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) with CAP (2002-2007). Patients admitted to the ICU were analyzed separately from those not admitted to the ICU. VHA patients who died within 30 days of discharge were excluded from all LOS analyses. We used chi-square and Fisher's exact statistics to compare dichotomous variables, the Wilcoxon Rank Sum test to compare age by race, and Cox Proportional Hazards Regression to analyze hospital LOS. We used separate generalized linear mixed-effect models, with admitting hospital as a random effect, to examine associations between patient race and the receipt of guideline-concordant antibiotics, ICU admission, use of mechanical ventilation, use of vasopressors, LOS, and 30-day mortality. We defined statistical significance as a two-tailed p ≤ 0.0001.\ud
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Results\ud
Of 40,878 patients, African-Americans (n = 4,936) were less likely to be married and more likely to have a substance use disorder, neoplastic disease, renal disease, or diabetes compared to Caucasians. African-Americans and Caucasians were equally likely to receive guideline-concordant antibiotics (92% versus 93%, adjusted OR = 0.99; 95% CI = 0.81 to 1.20) and experienced similar 30-day mortality when treated in medical wards (adjusted OR = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.87 to 1.10). African-Americans had a shorter adjusted hospital LOS (adjusted HR = 0.95; 95% CI = 0.92 to 0.98). When admitted to the ICU, African Americans were as likely as Caucasians to receive guideline-concordant antibiotics (76% versus 78%, adjusted OR = 0.99; 95% CI = 0.81 to 1.20), but experienced lower 30-day mortality (adjusted OR = 0.82; 95% CI = 0.68 to 0.99) and shorter hospital LOS (adjusted HR = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.76 to 0.93).\ud
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Conclusions\ud
Elderly African-American CAP patients experienced a survival advantage (i.e., lower 30-day mortality) in the ICU compared to Caucasians and shorter hospital LOS in both medical wards and ICUs, after adjusting for numerous baseline differences in patient characteristics. There were no racial differences in receipt of guideline-concordant antibiotic therapies
