Acute rheumatic fever (ARF), an auto-immune response to a group A Streptococcus infection and precursor to rheumatic heart disease (RHD), remains endemic in many socio-economically disadvantaged settings. A Global Resolution on ARF and RHD was recently adopted at the 71st World Health Assembly where governments committed to improving efforts to prevent and control ARF and RHD. To inform these efforts, the objectives of this study were to examine associations between childhood ARF in the UK between 1958 and 1969 and a range of environmental and social factors. Of 17 416 children from the nationally representative birth cohort of the National Child Development Study, ARF was reported in 23 children during early childhood (between birth and the 7-year follow-up) and in 29 additional children during middle childhood (between the 7- and 11-year follow-ups). Risk factors associated with ARF in both early and middle childhood were: a large family size; attendance at a private nursery or class; a history of nephritis, kidney or urinary tract infections; and a history of throat or ear infections. Risk factors for ARF in early childhood alone were families with fathers in a professional or semi-professional occupation and families who moved out of their local neighbourhood. Risk factors in late childhood alone included overcrowding and free school meals. These data suggest that prevention strategies in ARF endemic settings may be enhanced by targeting, for example, new members entering a community and children in environments of close contact, such as a nursery or shared bedrooms.

Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84–88) presented a critique of our recently published paper in Cell Reports entitled ‘Large-Scale Cognitive GWAS Meta-Analysis Reveals Tissue-Specific Neural Expression and Potential Nootropic Drug Targets’ (Lam et al., Cell Reports, Vol. 21, 2017, 2597–2613). Specifically, Hill offered several interrelated comments suggesting potential problems with our use of a new analytic method called Multi-Trait Analysis of GWAS (MTAG) (Turley et al., Nature Genetics, Vol. 50, 2018, 229–237). In this brief article, we respond to each of these concerns. Using empirical data, we conclude that our MTAG results do not suffer from ‘inflation in the FDR [false discovery rate]’, as suggested by Hill (Twin Research and Human Genetics, Vol. 21, 2018, 84–88), and are not ‘more relevant to the genetic contributions to education than they are to the genetic contributions to intelligence’.

To date, Ireland has been a leading light in the provision of youth mental health services. However, cognisant of the efforts of governmental and non-governmental agencies working in youth mental health, there is much to be done. Barriers into care as well as discontinuity of care across the spectrum of services remain key challenges. This editorial provides guidance for the next stage of development in youth mental care and support that will require significant national engagement and resource investment.

The multi-object spectroscopic facility FOCAP at the Anglo-Australian Telescope has been used to obtain spectra centred at the Ca II IR triplet of 14 stars in the field of the Sextans dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy. This satellite of our own Galaxy was recently discovered by Irwin et al. (1990) from APM measures of UK Schmidt Telescope photographic plates.

The U.K. 1.2 metre Schmidt Telescope acquired its first full aperture objective prism in 1975. This was a very low dispersion prism (2400 Å/mm at 4300 Å) which has been found to be particularly useful in searching for faint QSO’s.

Thirty five grants were made during the triennium October 1, 1996 to September 30, 1999. The astronomer, home country, and host country are listed below.

Our knowledge of the universe comes from recording the photon and particle fluxes incident on the Earth from space. We thus require sensitive measurement across the entire energy spectrum, using large telescopes with efficient instrumentation located on superb sites. Technological advances and engineering constraints are nearing the point where we are recording as many photons arriving at a site as is possible. Major advances in the future will come from improving the quality of the site. The ultimate site is, of course, beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, such as on the Moon, but economic limitations prevent our exploiting this avenue to the degree that the scientific community desires. Here we describe an alternative, which offers many of the advantages of space for a fraction of the cost: the Antarctic Plateau.

The phase-coherent recording of pulsar data and subsequent software dispersion removal provide a flexible way to reach the limits of high time resolution, useful for more precise pulse timing and the study of fast signal fluctuations within a pulse. Because of the huge data rate and lack of adequate recording and computing capabilities, this technique has been used mostly only for small pulsar data sets. In recent years, however, the development of very capable, reasonably inexpensive high-speed recording systems and computers has made feasible the notion of pulsar baseband recording and subsequent processing with a workstation/computer. In this paper we discuss the development of a phase-coherent baseband processing system for radio pulsar observations. This system is based on the S2 VLBI recorder developed at ISTS/York University in Toronto, Canada. We present preliminary first results for data from the Vela pulsar, obtained at Parkes, Australia, and processed at ISTS/York University, and discuss plans for future developments.

We present the results of a multi-wavelength investigation of the dwarf galaxy populations in three interacting galaxy groups: NGC 871/6/7, NGC 3166/9, NGC 4725/47. Using degree-scale Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope Hi mosaics and deep optical photometry from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we measured the Hi and stellar properties of the gas-rich low-mass group members to classify each one as a classical dwarf galaxy, a short-lived tidal knot or a tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG). Our observations detect several dwarf irregulars and various tidal knots. We identify four potentially long-lived tidal objects in the three groups, implying that TDGs are not readily produced. The tidal objects examined in this small survey also appear to have a wider variety of properties than TDGs formed in current simulations.

We present the first results from a study of the radio continuum properties of galaxies in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, (2dFGRS) based on thirty 2dF fields covering a total area of about 100 deg2. About 1·5% of galaxies with b J < 19·4 mag. are detected as radio continuum sources in the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS). Of these, roughly 40% are star-forming galaxies and 60% are active galaxies (mostly low-power radio galaxies and a few Seyferts). The combination of 2dFGRS and NVSS will eventually yield a homogeneous set of around 4000 radio-galaxy spectra, which will be a powerful tool for studying the distribution and evolution of both AGN and starburst galaxies out to z ∼ 0·3.

The structural integrity of oxide/metal interfaces is important in many applications. While most attention has focused on the debonding of oxide/metal interfaces by conducting strength and fracture toughness tests, very few investigations have looked at time dependant failure of interfaces under cyclic or static loading. Tests have been conducted on sandwich specimens consisting of 5 - 100 micron thick aluminum layers bonded between either polycrystalline or single crystal Al2O3 to determine cyclic fatigue-crack growth, as well as static loaded moisture- assisted crack-growth, properties of Al/Al2O3 interfaces. Under cyclic loading, crack growth was observed to occur predominantly by interfacial debonding, but was also observed to make excursions into the Al2O3. Static loading in a moist environment also caused interfacial cracks to deviate into the Al2O3 or alternatively to arrest. Due to the poor crack growth resistance of the Al2O3, cracks leaving the interface grew at faster rates than those at the interface. Trends in crack trajectories and crack growth rates are explained in terms of the degree of plastic constraint in the aluminum layer, the modulus mismatch, and the effects of environmental mechanisms.

Hydrothermal treatment of zirconyl salt solutions produces uniform m-ZrO2 powder on the order of 80 nm. This powder is porous, has a 3-nm crystallite size, and exhibits an unusually high degree of crystallographic alignment within particles. The generation of this powder occurs via a complex process involving nucleation, growth, and controlled agglomeration of primary particles. Particle formation, crystallographic alignment and particulate uniformity are explained in terms of solution reactions and colloidal behavior.

Thermal cycling of silicon solar cells heated with incandescent light or using an in-situ heating stage on an optical microscope caused unexpectedly rapid oxidation of the electrodeposited copper current collecting grid. Unusually fine buckling and spal ling of the oxide film also occurred at temp. as low as 180°C. These effects appear to stem from the very fine columnar grains and high defect content of the copper ribbons and some Cl residue from the electrolyte. With vapour-deposited Cu, similar relatively rapid oxidation and spalling were also observed. Origins of the high oxidation rates, the large compressive stresses within the oxide and the low-temperature spalling are discussed.