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The space industry is growing and space data are becoming accessible to businesses that were previously unthinkable. Constellations of small satellites in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) have created a gap that is allowing small and medium-sized space companies to gain momentum by developing new strategies and technologies. According to Euroconsult forecasting, the NewSpace market will grow from $12.6 billion to $42.8 billion in the next decade (2019–2028). Despite the study’s limitations and the uncertainties of the small satellite market, the results obtained in this exploratory research suggest that the Low-Cost Carriers (LCC) market, an already established market in the aviation industry, and the growing market of EO small satellite constellations in VLEO have similar behaviours. This behaviour shows that the evolution of EO smallsat constellations in VLEO is comparable with the evolution of the LCC airlines. In addition, the result also identifies a set of competitive factors that allow the researchers to observe similar strategic behaviour in both markets Peer Reviewed Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura

Challenging space missions include those at very low altitudes, where the atmosphere is source of aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft that finally defines the missions lifetime unless way to compensate for it is provided. This environment is named Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) and is defined for $h, arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2106.15912

Operating satellites in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) benefit the already expanding New Space industry in applications including Earth Observation and beyond. However, long-term operations at such low altitudes require propulsion systems to compensate for the large aerodynamic drag forces. When using conventional propulsion systems, the amount of storable propellant limits the maximum mission lifetime. The latter can be avoided by employing Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) system, which collects the residual atmospheric particles and uses them as propellant for an electric thruster. Thus, the requirement of on-board propellant storage can ideally be nullified. At the Institute of Space Systems (IRS) of the University of Stuttgart, an intake, and a RF Helicon-based Plasma Thruster (IPT) for ABEP system are developed within the Horizons 2020 funded DISCOVERER project. To assess possible future use cases, this paper proposes and analyzes several novel ABEP-based mission scenarios. Beginning with technology demonstration mission in VLEO, more complex mission scenarios are derived and discussed in detail. These include, amongst others, orbit maintenance around Mars as well as refuelling and space tug missions. The results show that the ABEP system is not only able to compensate drag for orbit maintenance but also capable of performing orbital maneuvers and collect propellant for applications such as Space Tug and Refuelling. Thus, showing a multitude of different future mission applications. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 737183. This reflects only the author’s view, and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains

The 1.0 meter f/4 fast-slew Zadko telescope is located in Western Australia, approximately seventy kilometers north of Perth at Yeal in the Shire of Gingin in a dedicated "low-luminosity" area. It is the only meter class optical research facility at this southern latitude between the east coast of Australia and South Africa and can rapidly image optical transients at a longitude not monitored by other similar facilities. We review here the main results achieved during the last decade and give some points toward the goals set for future years. Finally we discuss the modifications and improvements we had to perform in the facility to reach these new goals., Comment: 3 pages, refereed proceeding to appear in Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica Conference Series

The Satellite for Orbital Aerodynamics Research (SOAR) is a 3U CubeSat mission that aims to investigate the gas–surface interactions (GSIs) of different materials in the very low Earth orbit environment (VLEO), i.e. below 450 km. Improving the understanding of these interactions is critical for the development of satellites that can operate sustainably at these lower orbital altitudes, with particular application to future Earth observation and communications missions. SOAR has been designed to perform the characterisation of the aerodynamic coefficients of four different materials at different angles of incidence with respect to the flow and at different altitudes in the VLEO altitude range. Two conventional and erosion-resistant materials (borosilicate glass and sputter-coated gold) have first been selected to support the validation of the ground-based Rarefied Orbital Aerodynamics Research (ROAR) facility. Two further, novel materials have been selected for their potential to reduce the drag experienced in orbit whilst also remaining resistant to the detrimental effects of atomic oxygen erosion in VLEO. In this paper, the uncertainty associated with the experimental method for determining the aerodynamic coefficients of satellite with different configurations of the test materials from on-orbit data is estimated for different assumed gas–surface interaction properties. The presented results indicate that for reducing surface accommodation coefficients the experimental uncertainty on the drag coefficient determination generally increases, a result of increased aerodynamic attitude perturbations. This effect is also exacerbated by the high atmospheric density at low orbital altitude (i.e. 200 km), resulting in high experimental uncertainty. Co-rotated steerable fin configurations are shown to provide generally lower experimental uncertainty than counter-rotated configurations, with the lowest uncertainties expected in the mid-VLEO altitudes ($$\sim$$ ∼ 300 km). For drag coefficient experiments, configurations with two fins oriented at 90$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ were found to allow the best differentiation between surfaces with different GSI performance. In comparison, the determination of the lift coefficient is found to be improve as the altitude is reduced from 400 to 200 km. These experiments were also found to show the best expected performance in determining the GSI properties of different materials. SOAR was deployed into an orbit of 421 km $$\times$$ × 415 km with 51.6$$^{\circ }$$ ∘ inclination on 14 June 2021. This orbit will naturally decay allowing access to different altitudes over the lifetime of the mission. The results presented in this paper will be used to plan the experimental schedule for this mission and to maximise the scientific output.

We present the Global Rapid Advanced Network Devoted to the Multi-messenger Addicts (GRANDMA). The network consists of 21 telescopes with both photometric and spectroscopic facilities. They are connected together thanks to a dedicated infrastructure. The network aims at coordinating the observations of large sky position estimates of transient events to enhance their follow-up and reduce the delay between the initial detection and optical confirmation. The GRANDMA programme mainly focuses on follow-up of gravitational-wave alerts to find and characterize the electromagnetic counterpart during the third observational campaign of the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. But it allows for follow-up of any transient alerts involving neutrinos or gamma-ray bursts, even those with poor spatial localization. We present the different facilities, tools, and methods we developed for this network and show its efficiency using observations of LIGO/Virgo S190425z, a binary neutron star merger candidate.We furthermore report on allGRANDMAfollow-up observations performed during the first six months of the LIGO-Virgo observational campaign, and we derive constraints on the kilonova properties assuming that the events' locations were imaged by our telescopes. © 2019 The Author(s)., Parts of this research were conducted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), through project number CE170100004. EJH acknowledges support from a Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (DE170100891). AdUP and CCT acknowledge support from Ramon y Cajal fellowships RyC-2012-09975 and RyC-201209984 and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project AYA2017-89384-P. DAK acknowledges support from the Spanish research projectAYA2017-89384-P. MBacknowledges funding as `personal tecnico de apoyo' under fellowship number PTA2016-13192-I. MC is supported by the David and Ellen Lee Postdoctoral Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. SA is supported by the CNES Postdoctoral Fellowship at Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie. SA, AC, CL, and RM acknowledge the financial support of the UnivEarthS Labex program at Sorbonne Paris Cite (ANR-10-LABX-0023 and ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02). SA and NL acknowledge the financial support of the Programme National Hautes Energies (PNHE). DT acknowledges the financial support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) PIFI post-doctoral fellowship program (program C). UBAI acknowledges support from the Ministry of Innovative Development through projects FA-Atech-2018-392 and VA-FAF-2-010. IRiS has been carried out thanks to the support of the OCEVU Labex (ANR-11-LABX-0060) and the A*MIDEX project (ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02) funded by the 'Investissements d'Avenir' French government program. IRiS and T120 thank all the Observatoire de Haute-Provence staff for the permanent support. SB, NK, RN, and MV acknowledge the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF grant No 218070). TAROT has been built with the support of the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers, CNRS,France. TAROT is funded by theCNESand thanks the help of the technical staff of the Observatoire de Haute Provence, OSU-Pytheas.

ADBSat is a novel software that determines the aerodynamic properties of any body in free-molecular flow. Its main advantage is the fast approximation of the aerodynamics of spacecraft in the lower end of the low-Earth orbit altitude range. It is a novel implementation of a panel method, where the body is represented as a set of fundamental elements and the sum of their individual aerodynamic properties makes up the properties of the whole. ADBSat's approach treats the shape as a set of flat triangular plates. These are read from a CAD geometry file in the Wavefront format, which can be created with most common CAD programs. A choice of gas-surface interaction models is available to represent the physics of free-molecular flow under different conditions. Its modular design means that other models can be easily and quickly implemented. It also benefits from a new shading algorithm for fast determination of elemental flow exposure. An example case is presented to show the capability and functionality of the program., 30 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Computer Physics Communications

GRB160203A is a high redshift long gamma-ray burst presenting a collection of unusual features in the afterglow light curve. We study its optical and X-ray data. We find this event to occur within a constant density medium during the first part of the afterglow. However, after 13 ks we spot some flaring activities in the optical and X-ray light curves. We explain these flares by fluctuation of densities of the surrounding medium. Other scenarios, such as energy injection from a magnetar or variation of microphysical parameters are not supported by the data. We tentatively link these fluctuations to an unusual host galaxy, with gas density similar to the Milky Way and a dense cocoon of matter around a stellar progenitor similar to a Wolf-Rayet star. A termination shock scenario is found to be less likely., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; online data can be obtained from the authors on request. Accepted for publication into MNRAS

The 1.0 metre f/4 fast-slew Zadko Telescope was installed in June 2008 approximately seventy kilometres north of Perth at Yeal, in the Shire of Gingin, Western Australia. Since the Zadko Telescope has been in operation it has proven its worth by detecting numerous Gamma Ray Burst afterglows, two of these being the most distant `optical transients' imaged by an Australian telescope. Other projects include a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to image potentially hazardous near Earth asteroids (2019), monitoring space weather on nearby stars (2019), and photometry of a transit of Saturn's moon Titan (2018). Another active Zadko Telescope project is tracking Geo-stationary satellites and attempting to use photometry to classify various space debris (defunct satellites). The Zadko Telescope's importance as a potential tool for education, training, and public outreach cannot be underestimated, as the global awareness of the importance of astronomy (and space science) as a context for teaching science continues to increase. An example of this was the national media coverage of its contribution to the discovery of colliding neutron stars in 2017, capturing the imagination of the public. In this proceeding, I will focus on the practical aspects of managing a robotic Observatory, focusing on the sustainability of the Observatory and the technical management involved in hosting different commercial projects. I will review the evolution of the Observatory, from its early, single instrument, state to its current multi-telescope and multi-instrument capabilities. I will finish by outlining the future of the Observatory and the site., 5 pages, to appear into Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica Conference Series

Full list of authors: Antier, S.; Agayeva, S.; Almualla, M.; Awiphan, S.; Baransky, A.; Barynova, K.; Beradze, S.; Blažek, M.; Boër, M.; Burkhonov, O.; Christensen, N.; Coleiro, A.; Corre, D.; Coughlin, M. W.; Crisp, H.; Dietrich, T.; Ducoin, J. -G.; Duverne, P. -A.; Marchal-Duval, G.; Gendre, B.; Gokuldass, P.; Eggenstein, H. B.; Eymar, L.; Hello, P.; Howell, E. J.; Ismailov, N.; Kann, D. A.; Karpov, S.; Klotz, A.; Kochiashvili, N.; Lachaud, C.; Leroy, N.; Lin, W. L.; Li, W. X.; Mašek, M.; Mo, J.; Menard, R.; Morris, D.; Noysena, K.; Orange, N. B.; Prouza, M.; Rattanamala, R.; Sadibekova, T.; Saint-Gelais, D.; Serrau, M.; Simon, A.; Stachie, C.; Thöne, C. C.; Tillayev, Y.; Turpin, D.; de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Vasylenko, V.; Vidadi, Z.; Was, M.; Wang, X. F.; Zhang, J. J.; Zhang, T. M.; Zhang, X. H., GRANDMA (Global Rapid Advanced Network Devoted to the Multi-messenger Addicts) is a network of 25 telescopes of different sizes, including both photometric and spectroscopic facilities. The network aims to coordinate follow-up observations of gravitational-wave (GW) candidate alerts, especially those with large localization uncertainties, to reduce the delay between the initial detection and the optical confirmation. In this paper, we detail GRANDMA's observational performance during Advanced LIGO/Advanced Virgo Observing Run 3 (O3), focusing on the second part of O3; this includes summary statistics pertaining to coverage and possible astrophysical origin of the candidates. To do so, we quantify our observation efficiency in terms of delay between GW candidate trigger time, observations, and the total coverage. Using an optimized and robust coordination system, GRANDMA followed-up about 90 per cent of the GW candidate alerts, that is 49 out of 56 candidates. This led to coverage of over 9000 deg2 during O3. The delay between the GW candidate trigger and the first observation was below 1.5 h for 50 per cent of the alerts. We did not detect any electromagnetic counterparts to the GW candidates during O3, likely due to the very large localization areas (on average thousands of degrees squares) and relatively large distance of the candidates (above 200 Mpc for 60 per cent of binary neutron star, BNS candidates). We derive constraints on potential kilonova properties for two potential BNS coalescences (GW190425 and S200213t), assuming that the events' locations were imaged. © 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society., Parts of this research were conducted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), through project number CE170100004. EJH acknowledges support from an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (DE170100891). AdUP and CCT acknowledge support from Ramon y Cajal fellowships RyC-2012-09975 and RyC-2012-09984 and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project AYA2017-89384-P. DAK acknowledges Spanish research project RTI2018-098104-J-I00 (GRBPhot). MB acknowledges funding as 'personal tecnico de apoyo' under fellowship number PTA2016-13192-I. SA is supported by the CNES Postdoctoral Fellowship at Laboratoire AstroParticule et Cosmologie. SA and CL acknowledge the financial support of the Programme National Hautes Energies (PNHE). DT acknowledges the financial support of CNES postdoctoral program. UBAI acknowledges support from the Ministry of Innovative Development through projects FA-Atech-2018-392 and VA-FA-F-2-010. SB acknowledges Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF) grant no. -PHDF/18-1327. TAROT has been built with the support of the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers, CNRS, France. TAROT is funded by the CNES and thanks the help of the technical staff of the Observatoire de Haute Provence, OSUPytheas. MP, SK, and MM are supported by European Structural and Investment Fund and the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (Projects CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 013/0001402, CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16 013/0001403, and CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15 003/0000437). NBO, DM, and PG acknowledge financial support from NASA-MUREP-MIRO grant NNX15AP95A, NASA-EPSCoR grant NNX13AD28A, and NSF EiR AST Award 1901296. The GRANDMA collaboration thank the amateur participants to the kilonova-catcher program. The kilonova-catcher program is supported by the IdEx Universite de Paris, ANR-18-IDEX-0001. This research made use of the crossmatch service provided by CDS, Strasbourg. We thank Ulrich Hopp to provide the precise date of observations for AT2019wxt Wendelstein optical observations.

The discovery of the first electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave signal has generated follow-up observations by over 50 facilities world-wide, ushering in the new era of multi-messenger astronomy. In this paper, we present follow-up observations of the gravitational wave event GW170817 and its electromagnetic counterpart SSS17a/DLT17ck (IAU label AT2017gfo) by 14 Australian telescopes and partner observatories as part of Australian-based and Australian-led research programs. We report early- to late-time multi-wavelength observations, including optical imaging and spectroscopy, mid-infrared imaging, radio imaging, and searches for fast radio bursts. Our optical spectra reveal that the transient source afterglow cooled from approximately 6400K to 2100K over a 7-day period and produced no significant optical emission lines. The spectral profiles, cooling rate, and photometric light curves are consistent with the expected outburst and subsequent processes of a binary neutron star merger. Star formation in the host galaxy probably ceased at least a Gyr ago, although there is evidence for a galaxy merger. Binary pulsars with short (100 Myr) decay times are therefore unlikely progenitors, but pulsars like PSR B1534+12 with its 2.7 Gyr coalescence time could produce such a merger. The displacement (about 2.2 kpc) of the binary star system from the centre of the main galaxy is not unusual for stars in the host galaxy or stars originating in the merging galaxy, and therefore any constraints on the kick velocity imparted to the progenitor are poor., 26 pages, 9 figures, 15 tables

Internal systems for quality and safety were assessed in 89 hospitals in six European states, by external teams using standardised criteria and procedures, as part of the Methods of Assessing Response to Quality Improvement Strategies (MARQuIS) project. The assessments were made primarily to identify the current use of quality management systems in the sample hospitals, and also to demonstrate a potential tool for comparable assessment of hospitals in general. The large majority of the hospitals had a formal, documented infrastructure to manage quality and safety, but a significant minority had no designated mission, programme or coordination. In two-thirds of hospitals, the governing body was active in defining policy and programmes for improvement, and received reports on quality, safety and patient satisfaction at least once a year. The brief on-site assessments identified systematic variations, within and between countries, in structures and processes of governance and to document the uptake of best practice. Unacceptable variations in practice could be reduced, to the benefit of consumers and providers, by developing and publishing basic organisational standards relevant to all European states. The simple assessment criteria designed for this project could be developed into a practical tool for self-assessment, peer review or benchmarking of hospitals across national borders. This assessment, combined with explicit, relevant and achievable standards, could provide a vehicle to promote the voluntary uptake of best practice and consistency in quality and safety among hospitals in Europe.

It is common practice for captive birds to be kept under fluorescent lighting, which typically flickers at either 100Hz (UK) or 120 Hz (USA). Such lighting was developed for human vision and it is thought that birds may be able to detect higher frequencies of flicker than humans. For humans, 100Hz fluorescent lighting has been linked to eyestrain, headaches and migraine, even though this rate of flicker is above the human perceptual flicker-fusion frequency of around 60 Hz. Keeping birds under 100 Hz lighting is therefore potentially detrimental to their welfare. We studied the preferences of wild-caught European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, for high-frequency (HF, >30 kHz) fluorescent lighting versus conventional low-frequency (LF, 100 Hz) fluorescent lighting. The flicker frequency of the HF lighting would be undetectable to the nervous system of any animal. We also exposed starlings to either HF or LF light for 2 weeks, and investigated the degree of stress caused by each environment by monitoring their behaviour and plasma corticosterone levels. Groups of starlings showed a preference for HF lighting over LF lighting (P < 0.001), which indicates that they can detect a difference between the two lighting conditions and find the HF lighting preferable. However, there were no measurable differences in behaviour or plasma corticosterone levels when the birds were housed under either HF or LF for 2 weeks, thus providing initial evidence that housing starlings under 100Hz lighting may not be detrimental to the welfare of starlings during early captivity. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In autumn 1996, under the Presidency of Dr Robert Kendell, the College decided to mount a campaign to tackle the stigmatisation of people with mental illnesses. In 1997, a working party proposed goals, content, process and a 5-year governance. Other campaigns, both here and abroad, have either generically addressed ‘mental health problems' (e.g. Mind's ‘Respect’ Campaign) or targeted a specific mental illness, e.g. the World Psychiatric Association's anti-stigma campaign in respect of people with schizophrenia. Our working party decided that it might be timely to recognise the differences in public attitudes to the variety of mental illnesses. The campaign thus addressed six categories of mental illness: anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, schizophrenia, the dementias, eating disorders, and drug and alcohol misuse/addiction. Target populations were identified as doctors, children and adolescents, the workplace, the media and the general public. The working party had also secured funding and arranged for a survey, in July 1998, by the Office for National Statistics of opinions of the British public concerning people with these mental illnesses (Crisp et al, 2000). The Campaign started on 7 October 1998. Since that time, and drawing upon our survey findings within its initial literature review (Kelly, 1999) the Department of Health mounted its own anti-stigma campaign, ‘Mind Out for Mental Health’, which addressed a similar range of mental illnesses.

Placental transfer of nutrients and secretion of hormones is essential for normal fetal development.To determine whether biotin supply affects biotin homeostasis, proliferation rates, and progesterone secretion in placenta cells.JAr choriocarcinoma cells were cultured in media containing deficient (25 pmol/L), physiological (250 pmol/L), or pharmacological concentrations (10,000 pmol/L) of biotin for three weeks; markers for biotin homeostasis, proliferation, and hormone secretion were quantified.Biotin concentrations in culture media correlated negatively with expression of the biotin transporter SMVT, as judged by cellular transport rates of biotin, abundance of SMVT protein, and transcriptional activity of SMVT reporter-gene constructs. Notwithstanding this homeostatic mechanism, biotin concentrations in media correlated positively with activities of biotin-dependent propionyl-CoA carboxylase, abundance of biotinylated carboxylases, and with biotinylation of histones. Biotin deficiency was associated with decreased rates of thymidine uptake into JAr cells [pmol thymidine/( 10(6) cells x 24 h)]: 1.6 +/- 0.1 (25 pmol/L biotin) versus 2.3 +/- 0.2 (250 pmol/L biotin) versus 3.7 +/- 0.4 (10,000 pmol/L biotin), suggesting that cell proliferation depends on biotin. Secretion of progesterone was reduced in biotin-deficient cells; this effect was caused by reduced generation of new cells in deficient media rather than by an immediate effect of biotin on progesterone secretion at the singlecell-level.This study provides evidence that choriocarcinoma cells cannot maintain normal activities of biotin-dependent metabolic pathways if biotin concentrations in culture media are low. It is uncertain whether activities of biotin-dependent pathways in placenta affect fetal development in vivo.

Aim: To determine whether image analysis of ploidy status and immunohistochemical analysis of p57 KIP2 (a paternally imprinted, maternally expressed gene) can be used to refine the diagnosis of molar pregnancy. Methods and results: The original histological diagnosis in 40 randomly selected cases of hydatidiform mole was reviewed and confirmed in 38 cases (22 complete moles, 16 partial moles). These cases were anonymized and submitted for further analysis. Tissue from each case was submitted for flow cytometric assessment of DNA ploidy using a FACSort flow cytometer and for automated image cytometric assessment using a novel digital imaging system. Tissue sections from each case were immunostained with a monoclonal mouse antibody to p57 KIP2 . Correlations between the histopathological diagnosis, image cytometry. flow cytometry and p57 KIP2 immunohistochemistry were determined using K statistics. The concordance between histological diagnosis and p57 KIP2 was very good (κ= 0.89). Twenty of the 22 (90.9%) complete moles showed no immunoreactivity for p57 KIP2 . The remaining two cases showed nuclear immunoreactivity in villous cytotrophoblast. In one of these, the pattern of staining resembled that of a partial mole. In the other, the staining pattern supported the diagnosis of a twin molar/non-molar pregnancy. All 16 partial moles were p57 KIP2 immunoreactive. On flow cytometry, all 22 complete moles were diploid and 12/16 partial moles were triploid (the remaining four cases originally diagnosed as partial moles were found to be diploid). On image cytometry, one case originally diagnosed as complete mole was found to contain a triploid population. Thus, by using a combination of image cytometry and p57 KIP2 status we were able to refine the diagnosis of molar pregnancy in five (13%) of the cases studied. Conclusions: Automated image cytometry is a readily performed investigation which is comparable to, but more sensitive than, flow cytometry. Complementary use of ploidy analysis and p57 KIP2 status can now help to distinguish a diploid hydropic miscarriage (p57 KIP2 -positive), diploid complete mole (p57 KIP2 -negative) and triploid partial mole (p57 KIP2 -positive).

Objective We studied the long-term outcomes of intractable anorexia nervosa treated with leukotomy and specialized psychotherapy over 20 years ago. Method All traceable subjects were interviewed using the Eating Disorders Examination (EDE) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). They also completed questionnaires. Detailed histories were taken. Results Four of five female subjects were traced. Their cases had been severe, with failure of previous intensive psychotherapy and now with high risk of death from terminal inanition. One patient had committed suicide, whereas the others enjoyed a reasonable quality of life. Persistent core psychopathology was evident, but patients had not succumbed to weight loss. All suffered depression and anxiety-related disorders, but endorsed their treatment, which had allowed sustained weight gain by release of appetitive behavior, provision of a license to change, and alleviation of phobic anxiety, allowing psychotherapeutic engagement. Discussion We argue that these outcomes are relatively favorable and would not have been possible without this latter engagement in specialist psychotherapy to address burgeoning panic at unavoidable weight gain. © 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 27: 249–258, 2000.

The impact of mining activity in the Tri-State Mining District of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma has resulted in continual exceedance in water quality standards in many surface waters including Short Creek in Galena, Kans. Critical heavy metals detected in Short Creek have been lead, cadmium, and zinc. Water column samples were collected at each of seven sites from May 1992 to May 1995 and were analyzed for temperature, pH, conductivity, and total PO43-,CO32-, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, SO42-, Ba2+, Cd2+, Pb2+, Mn2+, Fe2+, Ni2+, Al3+, and Zn2+. Using MINTEQ (a geochemical equilibrium speciation model for dilute aqueous systems that can be used to calculate the equilibrium composition of dilute solutions in laboratory or natural aquatic systems), probable concentrations of metal species were predicted to evaluate the potential for metals to be in a bioavailable form. The MINTEQ predictions demonstrated the presence of dissolved metals, including a dominant free metal ion. Aqueous components within the dissolved frac...

Summary A third of a million adults in the UK sleepwalk while a million suffer from night terrors. In both conditions the individual is unaware of the fullness of their surroundings and is totally focussed in their concern or activity. Doctors are only likely to become involved if the individual comes to harm or seeks help or if other people are inconvenienced or threatened. The constitutional basis of the disorder is beyond doubt, although the actual expression may be related to stressful life-events resulting from an individual’s personality, relationships and circumstances. Treatment may include the provision of a secure environment, counselling, and the use of benzodiazepines and serotonin re-uptake inhibitors.

A method of rapidly assessing streams and rivers using chironomid pupal exuviae was tested on a chlordane-impacted stream near St. Louis, Missouri. Various concentrations of chlordane were found in sediments of Grand Glaize Creek, most likely resulting from soil runoff around housing and business developments throughout the stream's course. Chironomid pupal exuviae and sediment samples were collected concurrently from Grand Glaize Creek on two separate occasions, once in 1988 and again in 1990. Cluster analysis of samples at sites, based on the percent abundances of taxa within habitats and by subfamilies, produced two distinct clusters; one grouping samples with lower chlordane concentrations and the other grouping samples with higher chlordane concentrations. Further analysis showed a trend towards lower percent abundances of taxa living in depositional and transitional/depositional zones (Chironominae and some Tanypodinae) at the higher chlordane site, while the lower chlordane sites had lower percent abundances of taxa within erosional and erosional/transitional zones (Orthocladiinae and some Tanypodinae). These findings support the hypothesis that taxa living in close association to fine organic sediments will be exposed to higher concentrations of chlordane in the stream and more negatively affected than taxa feeding and living in habitats removed from chlordane-bound sediments. Comparisons from the present study were made to related studies revealing similar patterns among the Chironomidae.

The College Anti-Stigma Campaign website ( ) came of age with the launch of a 4 week long display of 2000 advertisements on London Underground trains, starting 4th July 2002. [Figure 1][1] reveals the immediate impact on the website hit rate, with a five or six-fold

The multi-disciplinary team of Becker and colleagues elegantly present their findings addressing aspects of the impact on Fijian schoolgirls of exposure to Western television (Beckeret al, 2002, this issue). These findings support the notion that such exposure has generated disordered eating, underlying body dissatisfaction and intergenerational conflicts within the family that may, in part, be fuelling the process. Focusing on the expected escalation of such disordered eating in this population under these circumstances, their study was naturalistic in capitalising on the recent introduction of television to Fiji, with the first survey of these schoolgirls taking place within 1 month of its advent. The second survey was 3 years later in 1998. The authors point out that the traditional Fijian culture has ‘supported robust appetites and body shapes'.

Our 5-year long campaign to reduce the stigmatisations of and discriminations against people with mental illnesses, launched as an outline endeavour in October 1998, is now in its third year. This update is intended to reveal that since 1998 we have been constructively busy and are poised to go public’ in major ways. We are now therefore appealing to the membership at large to join in the tasks. To this end we have been busy generating a tool kit that you may wish to draw upon and a series of proposed projects, some of which are already underway and some of which you may be able to pick up on or adapt for local purposes, in addition to any of your own initiatives.

This time-honoured propensity has probably served humankind and its ancestors well in the service of species and related personal survival. Such biological mechanisms as those subserving immediate survival, the quest for food, reproduction and related territorial needs are presumably its foundation

Six recovered anorectic patients, followed-up after 20 years of the onset of their illness, described their experience of recovery. “Personality strength,” “self-confidence,” “being ready,” and “being understood” were the factors most commonly identified as important for recovery.

A woman aged 80 years had suffered with anorexia nervosa in adolescence and the condition was rekindled after 50 years of remission. The remission was seen in the light of affective disorder and a chronic grief reaction.

Summary The free movement of doctors within the European Community demands harmonization of standards of medical practice and carries major implications of an undergraduate and postgraduate educational kind. These have begun to be addressed by the first three Medical Directives and also by a series of reports produced by the Advisory Committee on Medical Training to the European Community. This Committee was established in 1975 in order to provide informed agreed advice to the Commission. Many tasks remain to be tackled. A system of mutual inspection of the examination processes and standards in Member States should be established. Control must be exercised over the numbers of doctors produced since educational resources, including numbers of patients available for study, are limited. Thus, excellent standards of medical practice can only be developed and maintained if the primacy of clinical skills derived from the study of patients is recognized as essential in this respect. In some Member States at the present time there are many unemployed and therefore presumably deskilled doctors.

It is a paradox that many areas of specialised and highly specialised practice in psychiatry are commonplace within medical practice in general. Problems of mother and baby psychia try, chronic pain, psychiatric aspects of brain injury and related rehabilitation, resistant affective disorder, personality disorder, disor ders of eating, sleeping and sexual dysfunction, all judged to have major psychopathological elements, are ubiquitous, many throughout the life-span. Certain treatment approaches such as behavioural and cognitive psychother apy and family psychotherapy fall into the same category. All of them have generated one or more National Health Service (NHS)services within the UK under the umbrella of psychia try. Some of them impinge on Health of the Nation concerns. Many of them also fall into the realm of human biology rather than neuropathology which is often a more mainstream interest within psychiatry. Yet many of them also significantly overlap with and sometimes un derlie mainstream psychiatric illnesses. The specialised services have a definite stand ing in our College. In contrast, the highly specialised services usually develop under the wing of academic clinical psychiatry and are fragile. A senior clinical academic retires and the service must be picked up by an NHS appointee if it is to survive. These days it must be obviously financially viable for it to stand a chance ofbeing considered it must earn its keep including around 30% for management costs. For those of us working in these apparent fringes, the evidence of the last few years has been depressing. Some highly specialised services have disappeared abruptly before serious consideration could be given to their merits in terms of wider clinical need, profes sional development and other teaching and research potential. If this haemorrhage is to be staunched, then certain steps had best be taken now. A nation-wide identification of existing highly specialised services