The WASP Project and the SuperWASP Cameras

The SuperWASP cameras are wide-field imaging systems at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, and at the Sutherland Station of the South African Astronomical Observatory. Each instrument has a field of view of some 482 deg2 with an angular scale of 13.7" pixel-1, and is capable of delivering photometry with accuracy better than 1% for objects having V~7.0-11.5. Lower quality data for objects brighter than V~15.0 are stored in the project archive. The systems, while designed to monitor fields with high cadence, are capable of surveying the entire visible sky every 40 minutes. Depending on the observational strategy, the data rate can be up to 100 Gbytes per night. We have produced a robust, largely automatic reduction pipeline and advanced archive, which are used to serve the data products to the consortium members. The main science aim of these systems is to search for bright transiting exoplanet systems suitable for spectroscopic follow-up observations. The first 6 month season of SuperWASP-North observations produced light curves of ~6.7 million objects with 12.9 billion data points.

'American hegemony after September 11: Allies, rivals and contradictions'

11 September heralded and provided a pretext for a more aggressive but increasingly contradictory American hegemony. Some of the consequences are contrary to the United States' own interests. Its new doctrine of 'preemptive strike' against other sovereign states encourages similarly belligerent behaviour by other governments, and yet more terrorism by nonstate actors, the very threats which were to be eradicated by a re-asserted US hegemony. This essay focuses on three partly overlapping themes: different strategies towards allies - multilateral and unilateral; different forms of power - civil and military; and different ideologies of globalisation - neoliberal and neo-conservative. It argues that while US policy may oscillate between such poles, it often combines the different elements. The overall strategy of the Bush administration is best characterised as unilateral multilateralism. The main issue for US hegemonists is the ways in which their hegemony might best be exercised, maintained and strengthened vis à vis allies and rivals. But for a safer, more democratic world, the choice does not lie between one faction of US hegemonists and another: we need other alternatives such as cosmopolitan democracy and a genuine internationalist movement which would give it some much-needed substance.

Factores explicativos de las actitudes hacia el castigo juvenil. Evidencias de un diseño factorial

El rol desempeñado por la opinión pública en el desarrollo de la política criminal actual justifica el incremento de investigaciones destinadas a evaluar las actitudes de los ciudadanos hacia el castigo. No obstante, los avances en este ámbito han sido limitados debido a la utilización de rudimentarios instrumentos de medida. Por ello, el presente trabajo tiene como propósito explorar el efecto que generan en la opinión ciudadana ciertas variables referidas al hecho delictivo y al infractor, precisando su contribución relativa y la interacción existente entre ellas. Para satisfacer este objetivo se recurrió a un diseño factorial de la encuesta, creando una población de 256 casos-escenario fruto de la combinación de cuatro factores: la edad del joven, su historial delictivo, el grado de implicación en el hecho y el tipo de delito cometido. Los mismos fueron distribuidos en grupos de ocho casos ordenados aleatoriamente y fueron suministrados a 32 sujetos. Posteriormente se aplicaron análisis de regresión logística binaria. Los resultados obtenidos revelan que la naturaleza violenta de los hechos, la implicación activa de los jóvenes y el historial delictivo son predictores importantes de las condenas punitivas. Sin embargo la edad, una variable fundamental en la configuración de la justicia juvenil, no resulta significativa. De este modo, el trabajo muestra el potencial explicativo de este conjunto de factores y debate sus implicaciones teóricas y metodológicas para la investigación futura en este terreno.

Malignancy and mortality in a population-based cohort of patients with coeliac disease or 'gluten sensitivity'

Aim: To determine the risk of malignancy and mortality in patients with a positive endomysial or anti-gliadin antibody test in Northern Ireland.

Methods: A population-based retrospective cohort study design was used. Laboratory test results used in the diagnosis of coeliac disease were obtained from the Regional Immunology Laboratory, cancer statistics from the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry and mortality statistics from the General Registrar Office, Northern Ireland. Age standardized incidence ratios of malignant neoplasms and standardized mortality ratios of all-cause and cause-specific mortality were calculated.

Results: A total of 13 338 people had an endomysial antibody and/or an anti-gliadin antibody test in Northern Ireland between 1993 and 1996. There were 490 patients who tested positive for endomysial antibodies and they were assumed to have coeliac disease. There were 1133 patients who tested positive for anti-gliadin anti-bodies and they were defined as gluten sensitive. Malignant neoplasms were not significantly associated with coeliac disease; however, all-cause mortality was significantly increased following diagnosis. The standardized incidence and mortality ratios for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were increased in coeliac disease patients but did not reach statistical significance. Lung and breast cancer incidence were significantly lower and all-cause mortality, mortality from malignant neoplasms, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and digestive system disorders were significantly higher in gluten sensitive patients compared to the Northern Ireland population.

Conclusion: Patients with coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity had higher mortality rates than the Northern Ireland population. This association persists more than one year after diagnosis in patients testing positive for anti-gliadin antibodies. Breast cancer is significantly reduced in the cohort of patients with gluten sensitivity. © 2007 The WJG Press. All rights reserved.

Ascertainment of cause-specific mortality in COPD - operations of the TORCH clinical endpoint Committee

Background: TORCH (Towards a Revolution in COPD Health) is an international multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial of inhaled fluticasone propionate/salmeterol combination treatment and its monotherapy components for maintenance treatment of moderately to severely impaired patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The primary outcome is all-cause mortality. Cause-specific mortality and deaths related to COPD are additional outcome measures, but systematic methods for ascertainment of these outcomes have not previously been described. Methods: A Clinical Endpoint Committee (CEC) was tasked with categorising the cause of death and the relationship of deaths to COPD in a systematic, unbiased and independent manner. The key elements of the operation of the committee were the use of predefined principles of operation and definitions of cause of death and COPD-relatedness; the independent review of cases by all members with development of a consensus opinion; and a substantial infrastructure to collect medical information. Results: 911 deaths were reviewed and consensus was reached in all. Cause-specific mortality was: cardiovascular 27%, respiratory 35%, cancer 21%, other 10% and unknown 8%. 40% of deaths were definitely or probably related to COPD. Adjudications were identical in 83% of blindly re-adjudicated cases ( = 0.80). COPD-relatedness was reproduced 84% of the time ( = 0.73). The CEC adjudication was equivalent to the primary cause of death recorded by the site investigator in 52% of cases. Conclusion: A CEC can provide standardised, reliable and informative adjudication of COPD mortality that provides information which frequently differs from data collected from assessment by site investigators.

Organizational and financial transparency in the website of the foundations: an empirical study for Spain

Transparency in nonprofit sector and foundations, as an element to enhance the confidence of stakeholders in the organization, is a fact shown by several studies in recent decades. Transparency can be considered in various fields and through different channels. In our study we focused on the analysis of the organizational and economic transparency of foundations, shown through the voluntary information on their Website. We review the theoretical previous studies published to put to the foundations within the framework of the social economy. This theoretical framework has focused on accountability that make foundations in relation to its social function and its management, especially since the most recent focus of information transparency across the Website.In this theoretical framework was made an index to quantify the voluntary information which is shown on its website. This index has been developed ad hoc for this study and applied to a group of large corporate foundations.With the application of these data are obtained two kind of results, to a descriptive level and to a inferential level.We analyzed the statistical correlation between economic transparency and organizational transparency offered in the Website through quantified variables by a multiple linear regression. This empirical analysis allows us to draw conclusions about the level of transparency offered by these organizations in relation to their organizational and financial information, as well as explain the relation between them.

Orientación al mercado y tipología de las cooperativas agroalimentarias en base a la competitividad. Caso-estudio de las citrícolas españolas

La globalización ha recrudecido más si cabe la competencia en los mercados y las empresas deben afianzar y mejorar su posición competitiva para asegurar la supervivencia. Para ello resulta vital, entre otras cuestiones, velar por los intereses de los inversores al tiempo que cuidan de sus clientes. Las cooperativas sufren una coyuntura semejante respecto a sus socios y el mercado, es decir respecto a sus clientes internos (socios) y externos (mercado). El enfoque de las actividades y la estrategia de la cooperativa frente a esta dualidad determina su grado de orientación al mercado.Los estudios relacionados con la orientación al mercado en cooperativas son escasos en comparación con otras formas empresariales y han estado normalmente centrados en la figura de las cooperativas de segundo grado y circunscritos a sectores muy específicos.El sector citrícola español es uno de los más dinámicos y desarrollados del panorama productivo agrario. Su extensa experiencia comercial tanto a nivel doméstico como internacional confiere un carácter diferenciador a las entidades que operan en este subsector. Este trabajo analiza la posición de las cooperativas citrícolas españolas en relación a la orientación al mercado así como los factores de gestión y estrategia que están relacionadoscon ella. Para ello se utiliza una escala MARKOR, validada en estudios anteriores, sobre una muestra de 45 cooperativas.Se establece además una tipología de cooperativas citrícolas en base a los factores de competitividad que permiten ahondar en el conocimiento que existe sobre esta cuestión en entidades de economía social. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto un elevado grado de relación entre la innovación, el perfil del empresario y el conocimiento del entorno en relación con el grado de orientación al mercado.