Can Effects of Dark Matter be Explained by the Turbulent Flow of Spacetime?

For the past forty years the search for dark matter has been one of the primary foci of astrophysics, although there has yet to be any direct evidence for its existence (Porter et al. 2011). Indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter is largely rooted in the rotational speeds of stars within their host galaxies, where, instead of having a ~ r^1/2 radial dependence, stars appear to have orbital speeds independent of their distance from the galactic center, which led to proposed existence of dark matter (Porter et al. 2011; Peebles 1993). We propose an alternate explanation for the observed stellar motions within galaxies, combining the standard treatment of a fluid-like spacetime with the possibility of a "bulk flow" of mass through the Universe. The differential "flow" of spacetime could generate vorticies capable of providing the "perceived" rotational speeds in excess of those predicted by Newtonian mechanics. Although a more detailed analysis of our theory is forthcoming, we find a crude "order of magnitude" calculation can explain this phenomena. We also find that this can be used to explain the graviational lensing observed around globular clusters like "Bullet Cluster".Comment: 5 pages, Accepted for publication in Journal of Modern Physics: Gravitation and Cosmology (Sept. 2012

The Imperial Mind and Biodiversity Conservation: Historical perspective on current debates in biodiversity conservation

Biodiversity conservation debates have recently been summarized in the phrase, “land-sparing versus land-sharing.” In the land sparing camp are those who seek policies to put as much of the earth’s surface as possible into “protected areas” in which agriculture would be virtually excluded. In order to assure adequate food production, land outside protected areas would be farmed with maximum intensity through techniques that would largely exclude or exterminate wild populations of flora and fauna. In contrast, those who advocate land sharing policies argue for a combination of protected areas alongside agricultural landscapes that would use techniques tending to favor the maintenance of wild populations within a complex matrix of land uses. Here, I contend that the attempt to settle the debate through studies that seek quantification of agricultural production data and promotion of wild species populations in existing landscapes uses is of limited value because of the inability to control properly for both temporal and spatial variation. The more fundamental problem in quantitative evaluation, the one explored at length in this paper, is that the two policy positions in fact disguise profoundly different philosophical world views that can best be understood through historical analysis of the formation of colonial and post-colonial conservation ideas and practice. I argue that the essential problem with the land-sparing perspective can be summarized in two related points: first, land-sparing strategies assume that protected areas are more protective of a broad range of species than they are; and, second, they assume that the negative effect of industrial agriculture on biodiversity is minimal and can remain so even under strategies to increase production on a smaller land base. Both of these assumptions rest on a historically derived idea of control over landscape and habitat processes that is, from the land-sharing perspective, illusory. This false sense of control over human life and ecological processes arises at least partially from a way of thinking shaped by imperialism. I lay out here a historical perspective on contemporary conservation policy debates, with emphasis on the development of conservation policy in Brazil, Meso-America, and the United States.Biodiversity conservation debates have recently been summarized in the phrase, “land-sparing versus land-sharing.” In the land sparing camp are those who seek policies to put as much of the earth’s surface as possible into “protected areas” in which agriculture would be virtually excluded. In order to assure adequate food production, land outside protected areas would be farmed with maximum intensity through techniques that would largely exclude or exterminate wild populations of flora and fauna. In contrast, those who advocate land sharing policies argue for a combination of protected areas alongside agricultural landscapes that would use techniques tending to favor the maintenance of wild populations within a complex matrix of land uses. Here, I contend that the attempt to settle the debate through studies that seek quantification of agricultural production data and promotion of wild species populations in existing landscapes uses is of limited value because of the inability to control properly for both temporal and spatial variation. The more fundamental problem in quantitative evaluation, the one explored at length in this paper, is that the two policy positions in fact disguise profoundly different philosophical world views that can best be understood through historical analysis of the formation of colonial and post-colonial conservation ideas and practice. I argue that the essential problem with the land-sparing perspective can be summarized in two related points: first, land-sparing strategies assume that protected areas are more protective of a broad range of species than they are; and, second, they assume that the negative effect of industrial agriculture on biodiversity is minimal and can remain so even under strategies to increase production on a smaller land base. Both of these assumptions rest on a historically derived idea of control over landscape and habitat processes that is, from the land-sharing perspective, illusory. This false sense of control over human life and ecological processes arises at least partially from a way of thinking shaped by imperialism. I lay out here a historical perspective on contemporary conservation policy debates, with emphasis on the development of conservation policy in Brazil, Meso-America, and the United States.Biodiversity conservation debates have recently been summarized in the phrase, “land-sparing versus land-sharing.” In the land sparing camp are those who seek policies to put as much of the earth’s surface as possible into “protected areas” in which agriculture would be virtually excluded. In order to assure adequate food production, land outside protected areas would be farmed with maximum intensity through techniques that would largely exclude or exterminate wild populations of flora and fauna. In contrast, those who advocate land sharing policies argue for a combination of protected areas alongside agricultural landscapes that would use techniques tending to favor the maintenance of wild populations within a complex matrix of land uses. Here, I contend that the attempt to settle the debate through studies that seek quantification of agricultural production data and promotion of wild species populations in existing landscapes uses is of limited value because of the inability to control properly for both temporal and spatial variation. The more fundamental problem in quantitative evaluation, the one explored at length in this paper, is that the two policy positions in fact disguise profoundly different philosophical world views that can best be understood through historical analysis of the formation of colonial and post-colonial conservation ideas and practice. I argue that the essential problem with the land-sparing perspective can be summarized in two related points: first, land-sparing strategies assume that protected areas are more protective of a broad range of species than they are; and, second, they assume that the negative effect of industrial agriculture on biodiversity is minimal and can remain so even under strategies to increase production on a smaller land base. Both of these assumptions rest on a historically derived idea of control over landscape and habitat processes that is, from the land-sharing perspective, illusory. This false sense of control over human life and ecological processes arises at least partially from a way of thinking shaped by imperialism. I lay out here a historical perspective on contemporary conservation policy debates, with emphasis on the development of conservation policy in Brazil, Meso-America, and the United States

Determination of the Distribution of the Resident Inshore and Offshore Migratory Cod Populations Around Shetland (IVa) and Westwards into VIa

The current genetic analysis alludes to finer scale structuring of Atlantic cod stocks in the IVa and VIa stock units than had previously been reported by Heath et al. (2014). Consistent with previous studies of maturation, cod from Viking sampled in 2014 matured at a later age and larger size than other areas, providing a phenotypic population marker.  During spawning time there was no indication that the Viking group extended beyond the > 100 m waters of the northern North Sea. Indeed, the new genetic and maturity evidence suggests that Shetland coastal cod (ShIE) appear to extend into waters > 100 m east of Shetland.  The possible separation of cod from Scottish inshore waters from those offshore is also reminiscent of the inshore-offshore division seen in the northern North Sea.  There is some indication of mixing of populations outside the breeding season in the genetic analysis as well as the observation of large immature cod present in west coast samples.  The present study has considerably expanded our understanding of the Viking cod from northern IVa and when combined with the studies by Poulsen et al. (2011) and Heath et al. (2014), provides a good indication of population extent at spawning time and suggests a split around 0030 W

Visualisation of BioPAX Networks using BioLayout Express (3D).

BioLayout Express (3D) is a network analysis tool designed for the visualisation and analysis of graphs derived from biological data. It has proved to be powerful in the analysis of gene expression data, biological pathways and in a range of other applications. In version 3.2 of the tool we have introduced the ability to import, merge and display pathways and protein interaction networks available in the BioPAX Level 3 standard exchange format. A graphical interface allows users to search for pathways or interaction data stored in the Pathway Commons database. Queries using either gene/protein or pathway names are made via the cPath2 client and users can also define the source and/or species of information that they wish to examine. Data matching a query are listed and individual records may be viewed in isolation or merged using an 'Advanced' query tab. A visualisation scheme has been defined by mapping BioPAX entity types to a range of glyphs. Graphs of these data can be viewed and explored within BioLayout as 2D or 3D graph layouts, where they can be edited and/or exported for visualisation and editing within other tools

Dissonant Dopplegangers: Performing the Post-Natural Through Modulated Foley Techniques

This mixed media journal article investigates the multiple modes of inscription possible within a practice-based investigation of the Sonic Anthropocene. Drawing upon critical contexts from Geology, Geography and Anthropology, and the relations between writing, bodies and earthly matters, the authors suggest a re-writing occurs in mediated acts such as field recording (phonography). Microphonic translations from the field not only re-inscribe sites, plural; they reveal sound’s itinerant nature to be full of duplicitous and fictive potential. Operating such possibility through the practice of Foley, the post production art of material based sound effects, the authors pivot discussions around their soundwork Decoys (2018) and its attempt to address the urgency of anthropogenic change through a latticing of source and signal, site and studio, subject and observer, human and more-than-human. The research is published in a special issue of the journal Cadernos de Arte e Antropologia dedicated to "Antropoceno Sónico". The article includes documentation of research, an image of a score related to the project and a soundfile. Keywords: decoys, environmental fiction, foley, inscription, sonic anthropocen

Photometric Redshift Calibration with Self Organising Maps

Accurate photometric redshift calibration is central to the robustness of all cosmology constraints from cosmic shear surveys. Analyses of the KiDS re-weighted training samples from all overlapping spectroscopic surveys to provide a direct redshift calibration. Using self-organising maps (SOMs) we demonstrate that this spectroscopic compilation is sufficiently complete for KiDS, representing $99\%$ of the effective 2D cosmic shear sample. We use the SOM to define a $100\%$ represented `gold' cosmic shear sample, per tomographic bin. Using mock simulations of KiDS and the spectroscopic training set, we estimate the uncertainty on the SOM redshift calibration, and find that photometric noise, sample variance, and spectroscopic selection effects (including redshift and magnitude incompleteness) induce a combined maximal scatter on the bias of the redshift distribution reconstruction ($\Delta \langle z \rangle=\langle z \rangle_{\rm est}-\langle z \rangle_{\rm true}$) of $\sigma_{\Delta \langle z \rangle} \leq 0.006$ in all tomographic bins. We show that the SOM calibration is unbiased in the cases of noiseless photometry and perfectly representative spectroscopic datasets, as expected from theory. The inclusion of both photometric noise and spectroscopic selection effects in our mock data introduces a maximal bias of $\Delta \langle z \rangle =0.013\pm0.006$, or $\Delta \langle z \rangle \leq 0.025$ at $97.5\%$ confidence, once quality flags have been applied to the SOM. The method presented here represents a significant improvement over the previously adopted direct redshift calibration implementation for KiDS, owing to its diagnostic and quality assurance capabilities. The implementation of this method in future cosmic shear studies will allow better diagnosis, examination, and mitigation of systematic biases in photometric redshift calibration.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figures, 4 appendices, accepted for publication in A&