326 research outputs found
Jaina Non-Tīrthas in Madhyadeśa I: Fragments of Digambara Temples and A New Vaiṣṇava Inscription in Tumain
The article introduces the term 'non-tīrtha' as a new analytical category to designate Jaina sacred sites that have vanished or do not yet exist, according to the cyclical Jaina conception of history. It presents new evidence on two different Digambara 'non-sites': Māmoṃ (Bhāmauna) and Tumain (Tumbavana). The Digambara temple of Māmoṃ has completely disintegrated, but is still listed as a tīrtha in Jaina pilgrimage guides, while the non-tīrtha of Tumain is not listed, despite its numerous ancient Jaina sculptures, pillars, and other historical remains. The article presents evidence for the long-sought location of a Jaina temple, and a previously unpublished 10th to 11th century Vaiṣṇava copper-plate inscription, featuring one of the oldest known epigraphic records pertaining to the history of yoga
Consumer willingness to pay for traditional food products
Reflecting the growing interest from both consumers and policymakers, and building on recent developments
in Willingness to Pay (WTP) methodologies, we evaluate consumer preferences for an archetypal
traditional food product. Specifically we draw on stated preference data from a discrete choice
experiment, considering the traditional Hungarian mangalitza salami. A WTP space specification of the
generalized multinomial logit model is employed, which accounts for not only heterogeneity in preferences
but also differences in the scale of the idiosyncratic error term. Results indicate that traditional food
products can command a substantial premium, albeit contingent on effective quality certification,
authentic product composition and effective choice of retail outlet. Promising consumer segments and
policy implications are identified. (authors' abstract
Agent-Based Cloud Resource Management for Secure Cloud Infrastructures
The cloud offers clear benefits for computations as well as for storage for diverse application areas. Security concerns are by far the greatest barriers to the wider uptake of cloud computing, particularly for privacy-sensitive applications. The aim of this article is to propose an approach for establishing trust between users and providers of cloud infrastructures (IaaS model) based on certified trusted agents. Such approach would remove barriers that prevent security sensitive applications being moved to the cloud. The core technology encompasses a secure agent platform for providing the execution environment for agents and the secure attested software base which ensures the integrity of the host platform. In this article we describe the motivation, concept, design and initial implementation of these technologies
The IR Luminosity Functions of Rich Clusters
We present MIPS observations of the cluster A3266. About 100 spectroscopic
cluster members have been detected at 24 micron. The IR luminosity function in
A3266 is very similar to that in the Coma cluster down to the detection limit
L_IR~10^43 ergs/s, suggesting a universal form of the bright end IR LF for
local rich clusters with M~10^15 M_sun. The shape of the bright end of the
A3266-Coma composite IR LF is not significantly different from that of nearby
field galaxies, but the fraction of IR-bright galaxies (SFR > 0.2M_sun/yr) in
both clusters increases with cluster-centric radius. The decrease of the blue
galaxy fraction toward the high density cores only accounts for part of the
trend; the fraction of red galaxies with moderate SFRs (0.2 < SFR < 1 M_sun/yr)
also decreases with increasing galaxy density. These results suggest that for
the IR bright galaxies, nearby rich clusters are distinguished from the field
by a lower star-forming galaxy fraction, but not by a change in L*_IR. The
composite IR LF of Coma and A3266 shows strong evolution when compared with the
composite IR LF of two z~0.8 clusters, MS 1054 and RX J0152, with L*_IR \propto
(1+z)^{3.2+/-0.7},Phi*_IR \propto (1+z)^{1.7+/-1.0}. This L*_IR evolution is
indistinguishable from that in the field, and the Phi*_IR evolution is
stronger, but still consistent with that in the field. The similarity of the
evolution of bright-end IR LF in very different cluster and field environments
suggests either this evolution is driven by the mechanism that works in both
environments, or clusters continually replenish their star-forming galaxies
from the field, yielding an evolution in the IR LF that is similar to the
field. The mass-normalized integrated star formation rates (SFRs) of clusters
within 0.5R_200 also evolve strongly with redshift, as (1+z)^5.3.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted by Ap
Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Mercury Accumulation in Lacustrine Sediments across the Laurentian Great Lakes Region
Data from 104 sediment cores from the Great Lakes and “inland lakes” in the region were compiled to assess historical and recent changes in mercury (Hg) deposition. The lower Great Lakes showed sharp increases in Hg loading c. 1850-1950 from point-source water dischargers, with marked decreases during the past half century associated with effluent controls and decreases in the industrial use of Hg. In contrast, Lake Superior and inland lakes exhibited a pattern of Hg loading consistent with an atmospheric source - gradual increases followed by recent (post-1980) decreases. Variation in sedimentary Hg flux among inland lakes was primarily attributed to the ratio of watershed area: lake area, and secondarily to a lake’s proximity to emission sources. A consistent region-wide decrease (~20%) of sediment Hg flux suggests that controls on local and regional atmospheric Hg emissions have been effective in decreasing the supply of Hg to Lake Superior and inland lakes
The Environmental Dependence of the Infrared Luminosity and Stellar Mass Functions
We investigate the dependence of the galaxy infrared luminosity function (LF)
and the associated stellar mass function (SMF) on environment and spectral type
using photometry from the Two Micron All Sky Survey and redshifts from the Las
Campanas Redshift Survey for galaxies brighter than M_J<-19+5 log h. In the
field environment, galaxies with emission lines have LFs with much steeper
faint end slopes (alpha_J=-1.39) than galaxies without emission lines
(alpha_J=-0.59). In the cluster environment, however, even the non-emission
line galaxies have a steep faint-end LF (alpha_J=-1.22). There is also a
significant (95%) difference between the overall cluster and field LFs, . All of these variations are more
pronounced in the SMFs, which we compute by relating the strength of the 4000 A
break in the optical spectra to a mass-to-light ratio.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, emulateapj style ApJ, post-referee. Very minor
changes, mostly typographical in natur
Interacting Galaxies in the A901/902 Supercluster with STAGES
We present a study of galaxy mergers and the influence of environment in the
Abell 901/902 supercluster at z~0.165. We use HST ACS F606W data from the
STAGES survey, COMBO-17, Spitzer 24um, and XMM-Newton X-ray data. Our analysis
utilizes both a visual classification system, and quantitative CAS parameters
to identify systems which show evidence of a recent or ongoing merger of mass
ratio >1/10. Our results are: (1) After visual classification and minimizing
the contamination from false projection pairs, we find that the merger fraction
f_merge is 0.023+/-0.007. The estimated fractions of likely major mergers,
likely minor mergers, and ambiguous cases are 0.01+/-0.004, 0.006+/-0.003, and
0.007+/-0.003, respectively. (2) The mergers lie outside the cluster core of
radius R < 0.25 Mpc: the lack of mergers in the core is likely due to the large
galaxy velocity dispersion in the core. Mergers populate the region (0.25 Mpc <
R <= 2 Mpc) between the core and outskirt. In this region, the estimated
frequency of mergers is similar to those seen at typical group overdensities.
This suggests ongoing growth of the clusters via accretion of group and field
galaxies. (3) We compare our observed merger fraction with those reported in
other clusters and groups out to z~0.4. Existing data points on the merger
fraction for L<= L* galaxies in clusters allow for a range of evolutionary
scenarios. (4) The fraction of mergers, which lie on the blue cloud is
80%+/-18% versus 34%+/-7% for non-interacting galaxies, implying that
interacting galaxies are preferentially blue. (5) The average SFR, based on UV
or UV+IR data, is enhanced by a factor of ~1.5 to 2 in mergers compared to
non-interacting galaxies. However, mergers in the clusters contribute only a
small fraction (between 10% and 15%) of the total SFR density.(Abridged)Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 34 pages, 16 figures. Version with
full resolution figures available at: http://www.as.utexas.edu/~alh/apj/int/
; updated abridged abstrac
The Faint End of the Luminosity Function and Low Surface Brightness Galaxies
SHELS (Smithsonian Hectospec Lensing Survey) is a dense redshift survey
covering a 4 square degree region to a limiting R = 20.6. In the construction
of the galaxy catalog and in the acquisition of spectroscopic targets, we paid
careful attention to the survey completeness for lower surface brightness dwarf
galaxies. Thus, although the survey covers a small area, it is a robust basis
for computation of the slope of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function
to a limiting M_R = -13.3 + 5logh. We calculate the faint end slope in the
R-band for the subset of SHELS galaxies with redshif ts in the range 0.02 <= z
< 0.1, SHELS_{0.1}. This sample contains 532 galaxies with R< 20.6 and with a
median surface brightness within the half light radius of SB_{50,R} = 21.82 mag
arcsec^{-2}. We used this sample to make one of the few direct measurements of
the dependence of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function on surface
brightness. For the sample as a whole the faint end slope, alpha = -1.31 +/-
0.04, is consistent with both the Blanton et al. (2005b) analysis of the SDSS
and the Liu et al. (2008) analysis of the COSMOS field. This consistency is
impressive given the very different approaches of th ese three surveys. A
magnitude limited sample of 135 galaxies with optical spectroscopic reds hifts
with mean half-light surface brightness, SB_{50,R} >= 22.5 mag arcsec^{-2} is
unique to SHELS_{0.1}. The faint end slope is alpha_{22.5} = -1.52+/- 0.16.
SHELS_{0.1} shows that lower surface brightness objects dominate the faint end
slope of the l uminosity function in the field, underscoring the importance of
surface brightness limits in evaluating measurements of the faint end slope and
its evolution.Comment: 34 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, Astronomical Journal, in press
(updated based on review
The nature of red dwarf galaxies
Using dark matter halos traced by galaxy groups selected from the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4, we find that about 1/4 of the faint galaxies
(\rmag >-17.05, hereafter dwarfs) that are the central galaxies in their own
halo are not blue and star forming, as expected in standard models of galaxy
formation, but are red. In contrast, this fraction is about 1/2 for dwarf
satellite galaxies. Many red dwarf galaxies are physically associated with more
massive halos. In total, about % of red dwarf galaxies reside in
massive halos as satellites, while another % have a spatial
distribution that is much more concentrated towards their nearest massive
haloes than other dwarf galaxies. We use mock catalogs to show that the reddest
population of non-satellite dwarf galaxies are distributed within about 3 times
the virial radii of their nearest massive halos. We suggest that this
population of dwarf galaxies are hosted by low-mass halos that have passed
through their massive neighbors, and that the same environmental effects that
cause satellite galaxies to become red are also responsible for the red colors
of this population of galaxies. We do not find any significant radial
dependence of the population of dwarf galaxies with the highest concentrations,
suggesting that the mechanisms operating on these galaxies affect color more
than structure. However, over 30% of dwarf galaxies are red and isolated and
their origin remains unknown.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap
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