ANTARES and IceCube Combined Search for Neutrino Point-like and Extended Sources in the Southern Sky

[EN] A search for point-like and extended sources of cosmic neutrinos using data collected by the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino telescopes is presented. The data set consists of all the track-like and shower-like events pointing in the direction of the Southern Sky included in the nine-year ANTARES point-source analysis, combined with the throughgoing track-like events used in the seven-year IceCube point-source search. The advantageous ¿eld of view of ANTARES and the large size of IceCube are exploited to improve the sensitivity in the Southern Sky by a factor of ~2 compared to both individual analyses. In this work, the Southern Sky is scanned for possible excesses of spatial clustering, and the positions of preselected candidate sources are investigated. In addition, special focus is given to the region around the Galactic Center, whereby a dedicated search at the location of SgrA* is performed, and to the location of the supernova remnant RXJ 1713.7-3946. No signi¿cant evidence for cosmic neutrino sources is found, and upper limits on the ¿ux from the various searches are presented.The authors of the IceCube Collaboration acknowledge the support from the following agencies and institutions: USA-U.S. National Science Foundation-Office of Polar Programs, U.S. National Science Foundation-Physics Division, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Center for High Throughput Computing (CHTC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Open Science Grid (OSG), Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), U.S. Department of Energy-National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Particle astrophysics research computing center at the University of Maryland, Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at Michigan State University, and Astroparticle physics computational facility at Marquette University; Belgium-Funds for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS and FWO), FWO Odysseus and Big Science programmes, and Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (Belspo); Germany-Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP), Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), and High Performance Computing Cluster of the RWTH Aachen; Sweden-Swedish Research Council, Swedish Polar Research Secretariat, Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC), and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation; Australia - Australian Research Council; Canada-Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Calcul Quebec, Compute Ontario, Canada Foundation for Innovation, WestGrid, and Compute Canada; Denmark-Villum Fonden, Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), Carlsberg Foundation; New Zealand-Marsden Fund; Japan-Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Institute for Global Prominent Research (IGPR) of Chiba University; Korea-National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); Switzerland-Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); United Kingdom-Department of Physics, University of Oxford.Albert, A.; Andre, M.; Anghinolfi, M.; Anton, G.; Ardid Ramírez, M.; Aubert, J.; Aublin, J.... (2020). ANTARES and IceCube Combined Search for Neutrino Point-like and Extended Sources in the Southern Sky. The Astrophysical Journal. 892(2):1-12. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab7afbS112892

Changes in the Library Landscape Regarding Visible Minority Librarians in Canada

As a follow-up to the first 2013 survey, the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada (ViMLoC) network conducted its second comprehensive survey in 2021. The 2021 survey gathered detailed information about the demography, education, and employment of visible minority librarians (VMLs) working in Canadian institutions. 162 VMLs responded to the 2021 survey, 35% up from the 2013 survey. Changes occurred in ethnic identity, generation, where VMLs earned a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) or equivalent degree, library type, geographic location, and job responsibilities. The 2021 survey also explored other aspects of the VMLs not covered in the 2013 survey, such as librarian experience, salary, management positions, and mentorship experience. The research findings will help us better understand the current library landscape and help professional associations and library administrators to develop initiatives to support VMLs

Overview of the European Underground Facilities

Deep underground laboratories are the only places where the extremely low background radiation level required for most experiments looking for rare events in physics and astroparticle physics can be achieved. Underground sites are also the most suitable location for very low background gamma-ray spectrometers, able to assay trace radioactive contaminants. Many operational infrastructures are already available worldwide for science, differing for depth, dimension and rock characteristics. Other underground sites are emerging as potential new laboratories. In this paper the European underground sites are reviewed, giving a particular emphasis on their relative strength and complementarity. A coordination and integration effort among the European Union underground infrastructures was initiated by the EU-funded ILIAS project and proved to be very effective.Comment: Prepared for the Proceedings of the Topical Workshop in Low Radioactivity Techniques (Sudbury, Canada), August 28-29, 2010m (LRT2010). To be published on AIP conference proceeding

Dichotomies, Transcendence and Power: Investigating Women’s Narratives of Breast Cancer Risks

Worldwide, almost 630,000 women died from breast cancer last year. North American women face a lifetime risk for breast cancer of one in eight, with nearly 500 new breast cancer diagnoses each week in Canada. The overall global incidence of breast cancer continues to rise. Five to ten % of cases are related to genetics, family history, lifestyle and behaviour, all factoring into overall incidence. Fewer than 50% of breast cancers can be explained by the known or traditionally suspected risk factors. The complexity of the varied contexts, which produce disparate degrees of risk, should be incorporated into prevention strategies. Increased attention to environmental and occupational risk factors represents a significant site where primary prevention interventions could be effective. This qualitative study examines how women who work in an environment with an identified risk of breast cancer construct understandings and narratives of their risks and how women perceive and exercise agency in the acceptance, avoidance or negotiation of those risks. Personal narratives were gathered through in-depth individual interviews from 25 women who are current or former employees of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The research draws on Kleinman\u27s ecological approach, where the subject location is key to the framework for understanding health information within its socio-cultural context. Kleinman\u27s approach is further developed in this study by incorporating feminist standpoint theory and a socio-ecological framework. The theoretical approach constructed by incorporating these multiple perspectives frames women\u27s subjective understandings as situated in their socio-cultural contexts and allows understanding subject location and, importantly, agency—or control over breast cancer risks—as seen through the subject in her location. The narratives reveal how women construct their understanding of breast cancer risks, particularly concerning environmental factors, based on personal knowledge, occupational experience, and through the lens of gender. The exploration uncovers and analyzes how women\u27s subject location influences understandings, interpretations and use of knowledge about perceived risks for breast cancer in a risk-bearing environment and their related ideas about agency directed at risk mitigation. Policy, regulation, and risk mitigation strategies are enhanced by understanding how women make meaning in their knowledge of breast cancer risks and how they perceive the possibilities and barriers to agency to mitigate risks. The way women understand breast cancer risk is dynamic, contextualized, multisectoral, and relational and offers insights into understanding spaces. As seen from women’s standpoint, breast cancer risk is not solely a biomedical phenomenon residing in the body, determined by genetics or lifestyle choices, but is experienced by women in a nested set of social, cultural and political relationships. Increased understanding and collaborative partnerships between medical science and social science would improve breast cancer prevention strategies, particularly where risks are related to involuntary, environmental exposures. The findings contribute to efforts to address environmental health risks at the Ambassador Bridge and other workplaces and communities

Factors Influencing Cities' Publishing Efficiency

Recently, a vast number of scientific publications have been produced in cities in emerging countries. It has long been observed that the publication output of Beijing has exceeded that of any other city in the world, including such leading centres of science as Boston, New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo. Researchers have suggested that, instead of focusing on cities' total publication output, the quality of the output in terms of the number of highly cited papers should be examined. However, in the period from 2014 to 2016, Beijing produced as many highly cited papers as Boston, London, or New York. In this paper, I propose another method to measure cities' publishing performance; I focus on cities' publishing efficiency (i.e., the ratio of highly cited articles to all articles produced in that city). First, I rank 554 cities based on their publishing efficiency, then I reveal some general factors influencing cities' publishing efficiency. The general factors examined in this paper are as follows: the linguistic environment, cities' economic development level, the location of excellent organisations, cities' international collaboration patterns, and the productivity of scientific disciplines

Political Science at the LSE

This monograph traces the emergence and evolution of the LSE Government Department from 1895 to 2020, focusing on the personalities that guided the development of the Department, the social and political contexts the Department existed within, its research agenda and course structure, and the location of the Department in British politics. It also charts the evolution of the discipline of political science in Britain itself. The volume is divided chronologically into four chapters, each covering roughly similar time periods in the Department’s history and focuses on the events that shaped it: personalities, events, and location. Key themes are the development of political science in Britain, the impact of location on the LSE Government Department, the professionalisation of academia in Britain, and the microcosm the Department presents of British political life during each time period. The conflicts between progressive and conservative forces are a recurring theme which helps link the internal dynamics of the Department with the wider social and political contexts that occurred from the beginning of the School to its 125th anniversary. The volume uses detailed archival research, particularly in the early chapters, as well as over thirty interviews with a range of individuals with unique perspectives on the Department. These include current and former faculty and students (ranging from academics such as Christopher Hood, Anne Phillips and Tony Travers, to graduates who have subsequently become politicians—such as Anneliese Dodds, former UK Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Kennedy Stewart and Michael Fougere, both mayors in Canada), as well as others with strong links to the Department, such as Meghnad (Baron) Desai, and Professors Tim Besley and Nick Barr. This monograph offers a wealth of insights on the history of political science not only at the LSE, but in British academia more broadly. It speaks to a wide historical and social science audience concerned with Fabian and socialist history, the history of politics and education, and the development of British political science. Of course, it also offers appeal to more immediate audiences, such as prospective and current students, alumni, and others throughout the wider LSE community. As a history of the LSE, as well as of the development of British higher education, it serves as both a specific case study and a general representative of wider trends within universities during the twentieth and early twentieth-first centuries. A unique feature of this monograph is that it represents the collective efforts of students from the LSE Government Department (including undergraduate, MSc and PhD), who worked under the leadership of Professor Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey (Head of Government Department) and Dr Gordon Bannerman (British Historian). This collaboration has enabled a rich array of perspectives on the history of the Department but has also brought the monograph to life with personal ties to the Department itself

Northern Bering Sea tip jets

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L08807, doi:10.1029/2012GL051537.Low-level regions of high wind speed known as tip jets have been identified near Cape Farewell, Greenland's southernmost point. These wind systems contribute to this area being the windiest location on the ocean's surface and play an important role in the regional weather and climate. Here we present the first analysis of the wind systems that make the Siberian coast of the northern Bering Sea the windiest location in the North Pacific Ocean during the boreal winter. In particular we show that tips jets characterized by enhanced northeasterly winds occur in the vicinity of the two prominent headlands along the coast, Cape Navarin and Cape Olyutorsky. The advance of sea ice in the region is shown to impact the frequency and location of the high speed winds in the vicinity of these two capes. Furthermore, we show that these jets are associated with the interaction of extra-tropical cyclones with the high topography of the Koryak Mountain range, situated just inland of the capes. The windstress imparted to the ocean via the tip jets is argued to help drive the formation of dense water in winter in the northern Bering Sea, thus playing an important role in the regional oceanic circulation.GWKM was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. RSP was funded by grant NA08OAR43200895 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.2012-10-2

Political science at the LSE: a history of the Department of Government, from the Webbs to COVID

This monograph traces the emergence and evolution of the LSE Government Department from 1895 to 2020, focusing on the personalities that guided the development of the Department, the social and political contexts the Department existed within, its research agenda and course structure, and the location of the Department in British politics. It also charts the evolution of the discipline of political science in Britain itself. The volume is divided chronologically into four chapters, each covering roughly similar time periods in the Department’s history and focuses on the events that shaped it: personalities, events, and location. Key themes are the development of political science in Britain, the impact of location on the LSE Government Department, the professionalisation of academia in Britain, and the microcosm the Department presents of British political life during each time period. The conflicts between progressive and conservative forces are a recurring theme which helps link the internal dynamics of the Department with the wider social and political contexts that occurred from the beginning of the School to its 125th anniversary. The volume uses detailed archival research, particularly in the early chapters, as well as over thirty interviews with a range of individuals with unique perspectives on the Department. These include current and former faculty and students (ranging from academics such as Christopher Hood, Anne Phillips and Tony Travers, to graduates who have subsequently become politicians—such as Anneliese Dodds, former UK Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Kennedy Stewart and Michael Fougere, both mayors in Canada), as well as others with strong links to the Department, such as Meghnad (Baron) Desai, and Professors Tim Besley and Nick Barr. This monograph offers a wealth of insights on the history of political science not only at the LSE, but in British academia more broadly. It speaks to a wide historical and social science audience concerned with Fabian and socialist history, the history of politics and education, and the development of British political science. Of course, it also offers appeal to more immediate audiences, such as prospective and current students, alumni, and others throughout the wider LSE community. As a history of the LSE, as well as of the development of British higher education, it serves as both a specific case study and a general representative of wider trends within universities during the twentieth and early twentieth-first centuries. A unique feature of this monograph is that it represents the collective efforts of students from the LSE Government Department (including undergraduate, MSc and PhD), who worked under the leadership of Professor Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey (Head of Government Department) and Dr Gordon Bannerman (British Historian). This collaboration has enabled a rich array of perspectives on the history of the Department but has also brought the monograph to life with personal ties to the Department itself

Enhanced QoS for real-time multimedia delivery over the wireless link using RFID technology.

This thesis presents a Sensor Guided Wireless Adaptation Scheme (SGWAS) that works in a micromobility domain. SGWAS infers the reason of high packet loss in a realtime multimedia flow received by a mobile node in a wireless cell. Determining the reason of packet loss relies on information obtained from wireless sensors, specifically RFID devices scattered in the cell, to detect the location of the mobile node. If packet loss is due to wireless link congestion, then local rate adaptation is applied in the cell. However, if it is due to handoff or signal propagation effects, e.g. obstruction or attenuation, then rate adaptation is not performed. The source adapts its transmission rate if congestion occurs in the wired network. SGWAS helps improve the quality of service and avoids unnecessary rate adaptation. Simulation results demonstrate that SGWAS identifies the reason of high packet loss and performs rate adaptation only when needed.Dept. of Computer Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .E58. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0352. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006