Paradoxical popups: Why are they hard to catch?

Even professional baseball players occasionally find it difficult to gracefully approach seemingly routine pop-ups. This paper describes a set of towering pop-ups with trajectories that exhibit cusps and loops near the apex. For a normal fly ball, the horizontal velocity is continuously decreasing due to drag caused by air resistance. But for pop-ups, the Magnus force (the force due to the ball spinning in a moving airflow) is larger than the drag force. In these cases the horizontal velocity decreases in the beginning, like a normal fly ball, but after the apex, the Magnus force accelerates the horizontal motion. We refer to this class of pop-ups as paradoxical because they appear to misinform the typically robust optical control strategies used by fielders and lead to systematic vacillation in running paths, especially when a trajectory terminates near the fielder. In short, some of the dancing around when infielders pursue pop-ups can be well explained as a combination of bizarre trajectories and misguidance by the normally reliable optical control strategy, rather than apparent fielder error. Former major league infielders confirm that our model agrees with their experiences.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, sumitted to American Journal of Physic

Monolith formation and ring-stain suppression in low-pressure evaporation of poly(ethylene oxide) droplets

When droplets of dilute suspensions are left to evaporate the final dry residue is typically the familiar coffee-ring stain, with nearly all material deposited at the initial triple line (Deegan et al, Nature, vol. 389, 1997, pp. 827-829). However, aqueous poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) droplets only form coffee-ring stains for a very narrow range of the experimental parameters molecular weight, concentration and drying rate. Instead, over a wide range of values they form either a flat disk or a very distinctive tall central monolith via a four-stage deposition process which includes a remarkable bootstrap-building step. To predict which deposit will form, we present a quantitative model comparing the effects of advective build-up at the triple line to diffusive flux and use this to calculate a dimensionless number χ. By experimentally varying concentration and flux (using a low-pressure drying chamber), the prediction is tested over nearly two orders of magnitude in both variables and shown to be in good agreement with the boundary between disks and monoliths at χ ≈ 1.6

Measuring Fundamental Galactic Parameters with Stellar Tidal Streams and SIM PlanetQuest

Extended halo tidal streams from disrupting Milky Way satellites offer new opportunities for gauging fundamental Galactic parameters without challenging observations of the Galactic center. In the roughly spherical Galactic potential tidal debris from a satellite system is largely confined to a single plane containing the Galactic center, so accurate distances to stars in the tidal stream can be used to gauge the Galactic center distance, R_0, given reasonable projection of the stream orbital pole on the X_GC axis. Alternatively, a tidal stream with orbital pole near the Y_GC axis, like the Sagittarius stream, can be used to derive the speed of the Local Standard of Rest (\Theta_LSR). Modest improvements in current astrometric catalogues might allow this measurement to be made, but NASA's Space Interferometry Mission (SIM PlanetQuest) can definitively obtain both R_0 and \Theta_LSR using tidal streams.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters (minor text revisions). Version with high resolution figures available at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~drlaw/Papers/GalaxyParameters.pd

Outflows from active galactic nuclei: The BLR-NLR metallicity correlation

The metallicity of active galactic nuclei (AGNs), which can be measured by emission line ratios in their broad and narrow line regions (BLRs and NLRs), provides invaluable information about the physical connection between the different components of AGNs. From the archival databases of the International Ultraviolet Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we have assembled the largest sample available of AGNs which have adequate spectra in both the optical and ultraviolet bands to measure the narrow line ratio [N II]/H{\alpha} and also, in the same objects, the broad-line N V/C IV ratio. These permit the measurement of the metallicities in the NLRs and BLRs in the same objects. We find that neither the BLR nor the NLR metallicity correlate with black hole masses or Eddington ratios, but there is a strong correlation between NLR and BLR metallicities. This metallicity correlation implies that outflows from BLRs carry metal-rich gas to NLRs at characteristic radial distances of ~ 1.0 kiloparsec. This chemical connection provides evidence for a kinetic feedback of the outflows to their hosts. Metals transported into the NLR enhance the cooling of the ISM in this region, leading to local star formation after the AGNs turn to narrow line LINERs. This post-AGN star formation is predicted to be observable as an excess continuum emission from the host galaxies in the near infrared and ultraviolet, which needs to be further explored.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication at MNRA

A Photometric Method for Quantifying Asymmetries in Disk Galaxies

A photometric method for quantifying deviations from axisymmetry in optical images of disk galaxies is applied to a sample of 32 face-on and nearly face-on spirals. The method involves comparing the relative fluxes contained within trapezoidal sectors arranged symmetrically about the galaxy center of light, excluding the bulge and/or barred regions. Such a method has several advantages over others, especially when quantifying asymmetry in flocculent galaxies. Specifically, the averaging of large regions improves the signal-to-noise in the measurements; the method is not strongly affected by the presence of spiral arms; and it identifies the kinds of asymmetry that are likely to be dynamically important. Application of this "method of sectors" to R-band images of 32 disk galaxies indicates that about 30% of spirals show deviations from axisymmetry at the 5-sigma level.Comment: 17 pages, 2 tables and 6 figures, uses psfig and AAS LaTex; to appear in A

Three-dimensional laser surface imaging and geometric morphometrics resolve frontonasal dysmorphology in schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Although a role for early developmental disturbance(s) in schizophrenia is postulated, it has proved difficult to identify hard, biological evidence. The brain and face emerge in embryologic intimacy, such that in neurodevelopmental disorders, brain dysmorphogenesis is accompanied by facial dysmorphogenesis. METHODS: Three-dimensional (3D) laser surface imaging was used to capture the facial surface of patients and control subjects in 37 male and 32 female patients who satisfied DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia in comparison with 58 male and 34 female control subjects. Surface images were analyzed using geometric morphometrics and 3D visualizations to identify domains of facial shape that distinguish patients from control subjects. RESULTS: Both male and, particularly, female patients evidenced significant facial dysmorphology. There was narrowing and reduction of the mid to lower face and frontonasal prominences, including reduced width and posterior displacement of the mouth, lips, and chin; increased width of the upper face, mandible, and skull base, with lateral displacement of the cheeks, eyes, and orbits; and anterior displacement of the superior margins of the orbits. CONCLUSIONS: The frontonasal prominence, which enjoys the most intimate embryologic relationship with the anterior brain and also orchestrates aspects of development in maxillary and mandibular domains, evidences a characteristic topography of dysmorphogenesis in schizophrenia

Departures From Axisymmetric Morphology and Dynamics in Spiral Galaxies

New HI synthesis data have been obtained for six face-on galaxies with the Very Large Array. These data and reanalyses of three additional data sets make up a sample of nine face-on galaxies analyzed for deviations from axisymmetry in morphology and dynamics. This sample represents a subsample of galaxies already analyzed for morphological symmetry properties in the R-band. Four quantitative measures of dynamical nonaxisymmetry are compared to one another and to the quantitative measures of morphological asymmetry in HI and R-band to investigate the relationships between nonaxisymmetric morphology and dynamics. We find no significant relationship between asymmetric morphology and most of the dynamical measures in our sample. A possible relationship is found, however, between morphology and dynamical position angle differences between approaching and receding sides of the galaxy.Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures, AASTeX, accepted for publication in AJ, postscript figures available at ftp://culebra.tn.cornell.edu/pub/david/figures.tar.g

The Crossroads of Interprofessionalism: Four Avenues of Collaboration at the Wegmans School of Pharmacy

Objective: The utilization of interprofessional education and collaborative practice delivers optimal health services and improves patient outcomes. Training future healthcare providers in an integrated environment promotes a “collaborative practice-ready” workforce. The aim of this study was to identify ongoing specific interprofessional collaborative projects and promote their awareness among faculty at the St. John Fisher College Wegmans School of Pharmacy. Methods: Faculty members were surveyed to identify the ongoing interprofessional collaborative initiatives among pharmacy faculty. Results: A total of four collaborative practices were identified among faculty: ambulatory care, assisted-living, didactic, and assessment. The ambulatory care setting at an osteoporosis clinic provides patient-centered care with a clinical component. Each patient with a new diagnosis or change in medication therapy receives education/counseling from a pharmacist, a registered nurse for medication administration and a physician for a physical exam. In the assisted-living setting, pharmacy and nursing students are paired to conduct a high-level health assessment in their respective disciplines. Didactic interprofessional efforts are being conducted to create a flexible and comprehensive pain education curriculum. Physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, psychologists, chiropractors, and oriental medicine practitioners will develop the curriculum. The pain module will be adaptable for interprofessional education activities. Finally, recognizing the similarities in accreditation standards for communication and professionalism, the School of Pharmacy and the NY Chiropractic School are sharing strategies and rubrics for assessing these outcomes. Implications: The survey revealed a broader range of interprofessional collaborations than was originally suspected. The school will continue to foster and support interprofessional education and collaborative practice

Nonlinear saturation of electrostatic waves: mobile ions modify trapping scaling

The amplitude equation for an unstable electrostatic wave in a multi-species Vlasov plasma has been derived. The dynamics of the mode amplitude $\rho(t)$ is studied using an expansion in $\rho$; in particular, in the limit $\gamma\rightarrow0^+$, the singularities in the expansion coefficients are analyzed to predict the asymptotic dependence of the electric field on the linear growth rate $\gamma$. Generically $|E_k|\sim \gamma^{5/2}$, as $\gamma\rightarrow0^+$, but in the limit of infinite ion mass or for instabilities in reflection-symmetric systems due to real eigenvalues the more familiar trapping scaling $|E_k|\sim \gamma^{2}$ is predicted.Comment: 13 pages (Latex/RevTex), 4 postscript encapsulated figures which are included using the utility "uufiles". They should be automatically included with the text when it is downloaded. Figures also available in hard copy from the authors ([email protected]