The Lunar Environment Heliophysics X-ray Imager (LEXI) Mission.

The Lunar Environment heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI) is a wide field-of-view soft X-ray telescope developed to study solar wind-magnetosphere coupling. LEXI is part of the Blue Ghost 1 mission comprised of 10 payloads to be deployed on the lunar surface. LEXI monitors the dayside magnetopause position and shape as a function of time by observing soft X-rays (0.1-2 keV) emitted from solar wind charge-exchange between exospheric neutrals and high charge-state solar wind plasma in the dayside magnetosheath. Measurements of the shape and position of the magnetopause are used to test temporal models of meso- and macro-scale magnetic reconnection. To image the boundary, LEXI employs lobster-eye optics to focus X-rays to a microchannel plate detector with a 9.1×∘9.1∘ field of view.

The state of distance healthcare simulation during the COVID-19 pandemic: results of an international survey.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic continues to shake the embedded structures of traditional in-person education across all learning levels and across the globe. In healthcare simulation, the pandemic tested the innovative and technological capabilities of simulation programs, educators, operations staff, and administration. This study aimed to answer the question: What is the state of distance simulation practice in 2021? METHODS: This was an IRB-approved, 34-item open survey for any profession involved in healthcare simulation disseminated widely and internationally in seven languages from January 14, 2021, to March 3, 2021. Development followed a multistep process of expert design, testing, piloting, translation, and recruitment. The survey asked questions to understand: Who was using distance simulation? What driving factors motivated programs to initiate distance sim? For what purposes was distance sim being used? What specific types or modalities of distance simulation were occurring? How was it being used (i.e., modalities, blending of technology and resources and location)? How did the early part of the pandemic differ from the latter half of 2020 and early 2021? What information would best support future distance simulation education? Data were cleaned, compiled, and analyzed for dichotomized responses, reporting frequencies, proportions, as well as a comparison of response proportions. RESULTS: From 32 countries, 618 respondents were included in the analysis. The findings included insights into the prevalence of distance simulation before, during, and after the pandemic; drivers for using distance simulation; methods and modalities of distance simulation; and staff training. The majority of respondents (70%) reported that their simulation center was conducting distance simulation. Significantly more respondents indicated long-term plans for maintaining a hybrid format (82%), relative to going back to in-person simulation (11%, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study gives a perspective into the rapid adaptation of the healthcare simulation community towards distance teaching and learning in reaction to a radical and quick change in education conditions and environment caused by COVID-19, as well as future directions to pursue understanding and support of distance simulation.

Soft X-ray and ENA Imaging of the Earth's Dayside Magnetosphere.

The LEXI and SMILE missions will provide soft X-ray images of the Earth's magnetosheath and cusps after their anticipated launch in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The IBEX mission showed the potential of an Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) instrument to image dayside magnetosheath and cusps, albeit over the long hours required to raster an image with a single pixel imager. Thus, it is timely to discuss the two imaging techniques and relevant science topics. We simulate soft X-ray and low-ENA images that might be observed by a virtual spacecraft during two interesting solar wind scenarios: a southward turning of the interplanetary magnetic field and a sudden enhancement of the solar wind dynamic pressure. We employ the OpenGGCM global magnetohydrodynamics model and a simple exospheric neutral density model for these calculations. Both the magnetosheath and the cusps generate strong soft X-rays and ENA signals that can be used to extract the locations and motions of the bow shock and magnetopause. Magnetopause erosion corresponds closely to the enhancement of dayside reconnection rate obtained from the OpenGGCM model, indicating that images can be used to understand global-scale magnetopause reconnection. When dayside imagers are installed with high-ENA inner-magnetosphere and FUV/UV aurora imagers, we can trace the solar wind energy flow from the bow shock to the magnetosphere and then to the ionosphere in a self-standing manner without relying upon other observatories. Soft X-ray and/or ENA imagers can also unveil the dayside exosphere density structure and its response to space weather.

The origin of the local 1/4-keV X-ray flux in both charge exchange and a hot bubble.

The solar neighbourhood is the closest and most easily studied sample of the Galactic interstellar medium, an understanding of which is essential for models of star formation and galaxy evolution. Observations of an unexpectedly intense diffuse flux of easily absorbed 1/4-kiloelectronvolt X-rays, coupled with the discovery that interstellar space within about a hundred parsecs of the Sun is almost completely devoid of cool absorbing gas, led to a picture of a 'local cavity' filled with X-ray-emitting hot gas, dubbed the local hot bubble. This model was recently challenged by suggestions that the emission could instead be readily produced within the Solar System by heavy solar-wind ions exchanging electrons with neutral H and He in interplanetary space, potentially removing the major piece of evidence for the local existence of million-degree gas within the Galactic disk. Here we report observations showing that the total solar-wind charge-exchange contribution is approximately 40 per cent of the 1/4-keV flux in the Galactic plane. The fact that the measured flux is not dominated by charge exchange supports the notion of a million-degree hot bubble extending about a hundred parsecs from the Sun.

Simultaneous ground- and space-based observations of the plasmaspheric plume and reconnection.

Magnetic reconnection is the primary process through which energy couples from the solar wind into Earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere. Conditions both in the incident solar wind and in the magnetosphere are important in determining the efficiency of this energy transfer. In particular, the cold, dense plasmaspheric plume can substantially impact the coupling in the dayside reconnection region. Using ground-based total electron content (TEC) maps and measurements from the THEMIS spacecraft, we investigated simultaneous ionosphere and magnetosphere observations of the plasmaspheric plume and its involvement in an unsteady magnetic reconnection process. The observations show the full circulation pattern of the plasmaspheric plume and validate the connection between signatures of variability in the dense plume and reconnection at the magnetopause as measured in situ and through TEC measurements in the ionosphere.

Alcoholic beverages in Ireland: market forces and government policy.

The changing pattern of consumption of alcoholic beverages in Ireland and the association between this and the trend in alcohol-related problems are examined. As a result of a relatively low price and high income elasticities of demand for alcoholic beverages, the high level of taxation of alcohol in Ireland has resulted in an exceptionally large proportion of income being devoted to purchasing them rather than to a fall in their consumption. During the 1980's it became apparent that any major divergence between Irish and U.K. liquor prices generated a large cross-border trade and was counter-productive from a revenue perspective. Further pressure to reduce the level of taxation is coming from the move to harmonize taxes across EC member states. The limitations of taxation policy as a means of controlling the consumption of demerit goods in a small economy are clearly illustrated by the Irish experience.

Do excise taxes save lives? The Irish experience with alcohol taxation.

This paper studies the effects of changes in the level of indirect taxation of alcoholic beverages on alcohol-related problems. Using time series data for Ireland the following topics are explored: (1) the effect of changes in taxation on the retail price of alcohol; (2) the effect of changes in the retail price on the consumption of alcohol; and (3) the association between changes in alcohol consumption and the incidence of certain alcohol-related problems, such as deaths from liver cirrhosis and fatal road accidents. The evidence is that a relatively small number of alcohol-related deaths would be averted by higher alcohol taxes. The effect of heavier taxation on the distribution of purchasing power is discussed.

Population, employment and economic growth in Ireland.

PIP: The population of the Republic of Ireland increased at an annual average rate of 1.5% between 1971-79. There is no evidence of a slowing down in the population growth rate since 1979; the electoral register totals have shown larger increases in the 2 years since 1979 than over the 1971-79 period. Rapid population growth is a unique experience in Ireland. The highly variable rate of population growth mirrors the fluctuations in the net migration rate over the years. During the 1970s the net inflow of population to Ireland was the result of a strong return flow of former emigrants (and their children) combined with a smaller stream of immigrants to Ireland who had no previous link with the country. Only among those aged 10-19 in 1971 (or 18-27 in 1979) was there significant net emigration. The current population estimtates published by the Central Statistics Office during the 1970s failed to reflect the great change in population growth that was taking place. Immediately before the 1970 Census, the official population estimates were about 100,000 lower than the revised estimates that were published in light of the Census enumeration. The post Census revision to the population estimates had far reaching implications for several economic series. An adjustment was essential because much of the underestimation of the population was due to an underestimate of return migration among persons aged 25-44, who were likely to have been attracted back to Ireland by the availability of employment opportunities. Shortly after the publication of the 1979 Census it was noted that the estimates of the labor force that had been used up to then would need to be substantially revised in order to consider the new population data. Revised labor estimates were published at the end of 1980. The revised estimates of employment in 1979 added 80,000 or 7.5% to the already published estimates. The available estimates suggest that much of the rapid spurt in employment growth towards the end of the 1970s was obtained by the addition of substantial numbers of low productivity jobs to the economy. The growth in the numbers aged over 14 who are not in the labor force amounts to a 21% increase over the 1971 level. Because the numbers in the labor force (employed plus unemployed) grew less rapidly than the total population, the labor force participation rate declined. Decreases in the proportion of the population that is economically active imply that employed persons must bear a heavier burden in the form of taxes and other transfer mechanisms in order to support the rest of the population.^ieng

A study of Irish county marriage rates, 1961-1966.

Abstract This article considers a group of models of Irish county marriage rates. Some of these models account for the major part of the inter-county variation in male and female marriage rates in terms of the influence of a limited number of socio-economic variables. The sex ratio of the unmarried population in the counties plays a key role in all of the models: the female marriage rate tends to be raised, and the male rate lowered, by a high ratio of males to females in the unmarried population. Male rates appear to increase under more favourable economic conditions, as measured by county income per person, while female rates appear to be lowered by increased female participation in the labour force. In addition to these separate influences on male and female rates, a recursive model in which there is a one-way influence from male to female rates, and a simultaneous-equation model, in which male and female rates are fully interdependent, were tested. The performance of the tested recursive model was particularly satisfactory.