11,089 research outputs found
The Imprint of Gravitational Waves on the Cosmic Microwave Background
Long-wavelength gravitational waves can induce significant temperature
anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background. Distinguishing this from
anisotropy induced by energy density fluctuations is critical for testing
inflationary cosmology and theories of large-scale structure formation. We
describe full radiative transport calculations of the two contributions and
show that they differ dramatically at angular scales below a few degrees. We
show how anisotropy experiments probing large- and small-angular scales can
combine to distinguish the imprint due to gravitational waves.Comment: 11 pages, Penn Preprint-UPR-
Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF) Project: Development of the TTF TPACK survey instrument
This paper presents a summary of the key findings of the TTF TPACK Survey developed and administered for the Teaching the Teachers for the Future (TTF) Project implemented in 2011. The TTF Project, funded by an Australian Government ICT Innovation Fund grant, involved all 39 Australian Higher Education Institutions which provide initial teacher education. TTF data collections were undertaken at the end of Semester 1 (T1) and at the end of Semester 2 (T2) in 2011. A total of 12881 participants completed the first survey (T1) and 5809 participants completed the second survey (T2). Groups of like-named items from the T1 survey were subject to a battery of complementary data analysis techniques. The psychometric properties of the four scales: Confidence - teacher items; Usefulness - teacher items; Confidence - student items; Usefulness- student items, were confirmed both at T1 and T2. Among the key findings summarised, at the national level, the scale: Confidence to use ICT as a teacher showed measurable growth across the whole scale from T1 to T2, and the scale: Confidence to facilitate student use of ICT also showed measurable growth across the whole scale from T1 to T2. Additional key TTF TPACK Survey findings are summarised
Post-AGB Stars in Globular Clusters and Galactic Halos
We discuss three aspects of post-AGB (PAGB) stars in old populations. (1) HST
photometry of the nucleus of the planetary nebula (PN) K 648 in the globular
cluster (GC) M15 implies a mass of 0.60 Msun, in contrast to the mean masses of
white dwarfs in GCs of ~0.5 Msun. This suggests that K 648 is descended from a
merged binary, and we infer that single Pop II stars do not produce visible
PNe. (2) Yellow PAGB stars are the visually brightest stars in old populations
(Mv ~ -3.3) and are easily recognizable because of their large Balmer jumps;
thus they show great promise as a Pop II standard candle. Two yellow PAGB stars
in the GC NGC 5986 have the same V magnitudes to within +/-0.05 mag, supporting
an expected narrow luminosity function. (3) Using CCD photometry and a u filter
lying below the Balmer jump, we have detected yellow PAGB stars in the halo of
M31 and in its dwarf elliptical companion NGC 205. With the Milky Way zero
point, we reproduce the Cepheid distance to M31, and find that NGC 205 is ~100
kpc further away than M31. The star counts imply a yellow PAGB lifetime of
about 25,000 yr, and their luminosities imply masses near 0.53 Msun.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. To appear in proceedings of Torun, Poland,
workshop on "Post-AGB Objects (Proto-Planetary Nebulae) as a Phase of Stellar
Evolution," ed. S.K. Gorn
Lipid droplet detection by the cavity perturbation method
There are currently no point-of-care diagnosis strategies available to indicate the presence of neoplasmic growth. This research aims to develop a novel diagnostic strategy based on detecting TAG accumulation in cells. This element of the research is a preliminary experiment to prove the concept of detecting TAG lipid droplets in YEPD media. It was found that a change in mono-unsaturated concentration can be detected by the frequency shift in a resonant cavity. The dielectric constant of TAG vegetable oils was calculated at 2.34-2.39. It was also found that concentrations of lipid droplet can be differentiated up to 5% (v/v)
Large-scale surface reconstruction energetics of Pt(100) and Au(100) by all-electron DFT
The low-index surfaces of Au and Pt all tend to reconstruct, a fact that is
of key importance in many nanostructure, catalytic, and electrochemical
applications. Remarkably, some significant questions regarding their structural
energies remain even today, in particular for the large-scale quasihexagonal
reconstructed (100) surfaces: Rather dissimilar reconstruction energies for Au
and Pt in available experiments, and experiment and theory do not match for Pt.
We here show by all-electron density-functional theory that only large enough
"(5 x N)" approximant supercells capture the qualitative reconstruction energy
trend between Au(100) and Pt(100), in contrast to what is often done in the
theoretical literature. Their magnitudes are then in fact similar, and closer
to the measured value for Pt(100); our calculations achieve excellent agreement
with known geometric characteristics and provide direct evidence for the
electronic reconstruction driving force.Comment: updated version - also includes EPAPS information as auxiliary file;
related publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/th.htm
Power Spectrum of Primordial Inhomogeneity Determined from the 4-Year COBE DMR Sky Maps
Fourier analysis and power spectrum estimation of the cosmic microwave
background anisotropy on an incompletely sampled sky developed by Gorski (1994)
has been applied to the high-latitude portion of the 4-year COBE DMR 31.5, 53
and 90 GHz sky maps. Likelihood analysis using newly constructed Galaxy cuts
(extended beyond |b| = 20deg to excise the known foreground emission) and
simultaneously correcting for the faint high latitude galactic foreground
emission is conducted on the DMR sky maps pixelized in both ecliptic and
galactic coordinates. The Bayesian power spectrum estimation from the
foreground corrected 4-year COBE DMR data renders n ~ 1.2 +/- 0.3, and
Q_{rms-PS} ~ 15.3^{+3.7}_{-2.8} microK (projections of the two-parameter
likelihood). These results are consistent with the Harrison-Zel'dovich n=1
model of amplitude Q_{rms-PS} ~ 18 microK detected with significance exceeding
14sigma (dQ/Q < 0.07). (A small power spectrum amplitude drop below the
published 2-year results is predominantly due to the application of the new,
extended Galaxy cuts.)Comment: 9 pages of text in LaTeX, 1 postscript Table, 4 postscript figures (2
color plates), submitted to The Astrophysical Journal (Letters
A Limit on the Polarized Anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background at Subdegree Angular Scales
A ground-based polarimeter, PIQUE, operating at 90 GHz has set a new limit on
the magnitude of any polarized anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background.
The combination of the scan strategy and full width half maximum beam of 0.235
degrees gives broad window functions with average multipoles, l = 211+294-146
and l = 212+229-135 for the E- and B-mode window functions, respectively. A
joint likelihood analysis yields simultaneous 95% confidence level flat band
power limits of 14 and 13 microkelvin on the amplitudes of the E- and B-mode
angular power spectra, respectively. Assuming no B-modes, a 95% confidence
limit of 10 microkelvin is placed on the amplitude of the E-mode angular power
spectrum alone.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letter
Cosmic microwave background snapshots: pre-WMAP and post-WMAP
Abbreviated: We highlight the remarkable evolution in the CMB power spectrum
over the past few years, and in the cosmological parameters for minimal
inflation models derived from it. Grand unified spectra (GUS) show pre-WMAP
optimal bandpowers are in good agreement with each other and with the one-year
WMAP results, which now dominate the L < 600 bands. GUS are used to determine
calibrations, peak/dip locations and heights, and damping parameters. These CMB
experiments significantly increased the case for accelerated expansion in the
early universe (the inflationary paradigm) and at the current epoch (dark
energy dominance) when they were combined with `prior' probabilities on the
parameters. A minimal inflation parameter set is applied in the same way to the
evolving data. Grid-based and and Monte Carlo Markov Chain methods are shown to
give similar values, highly stable over time and for different prior choices,
with the increasing precision best characterized by decreasing errors on
uncorrelated parameter eigenmodes. After marginalizing over the other cosmic
and experimental variables for a weak+LSS prior, the pre-WMAP data of Jan03 cf.
the post-WMAP data of Mar03 give Omega_{tot} =1.03^{+0.05}_{-0.04} cf.
1.02^{+0.04}_{-0.03}. Adding the flat prior, n_s =0.95^{+0.07}_{-0.04} cf.
0.97^{+0.02}_{-0.02}, with < 2\sigma evidence for a log variation of n_s. The
densities have concordance values. The dark energy pressure-to-density ratio is
not well constrained by our weak+LSS prior, but adding SN1 gives w_Q < -0.7. We
find \sigma_8 = 0.89^{+0.06}_{-0.07} cf. 0.86^{+0.04}_{-0.04}, implying a
sizable SZ effect; the high L power suggest \sigma_8 \sim 0.94^{+0.08}_{-0.16}
is needed to be SZ-compatible.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, Jan 2003 Roy Soc Discussion Meeting on
`The search for dark matter and dark energy in the Universe', published PDF
(Oct 15 2003) is http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/~bond/roysoc03/03TA2435.pd
Can MONDian vector theories explain the cosmic speed up ?
Generalized Einstein - Aether vector field models have been shown to provide,
in the weak field regime, modifications to gravity which can be reconciled with
the successfull MOND proposal. Very little is known, however, on the function
F(K) defining the vector field Lagrangian so that an analysis of the viability
of such theories at the cosmological scales has never been performed. As a
first step along this route, we rely on the relation between F(K) and the MOND
interpolating function to assign the vector field Lagrangian thus
obtaining what we refer to as "MONDian vector models". Since they are able by
construction to recover the MOND successes on galaxy scales, we investigate
whether they can also drive the observed accelerated expansion by fitting the
models to the Type Ia Supernovae data. Should be this the case, we have a
unified framework where both dark energy and dark matter can be seen as
different manifestations of a single vector field. It turns out that both
MONDian vector models are able to well fit the low redshift data on Type Ia
Supernovae, while some tension could be present in the high z regime.Comment: 15 pages, 5 tables, 4 figures, accepted for publication on Physical
Review
'Help for hay fever', a goal-focused intervention for people with intermittent allergic rhinitis, delivered in Scottish community pharmacies: study protocol for a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial
<b>Background</b> Despite the availability of evidence-based guidelines for managing allergic rhinitis in primary care, management of the condition in the United Kingdom (UK) remains sub-optimal. Its high prevalence and negative effects on quality of life, school performance, productivity and co-morbid respiratory conditions (in particular, asthma), and high health and societal costs, make this a priority for developing novel models of care. Recent Australian research demonstrated the potential of a community pharmacy-based âgoal-focusedâ intervention to help people with intermittent allergic rhinitis to self-manage their condition better, reduce symptom severity and improve quality of life. In this pilot study we will assess the transferability of the goal-focused intervention to a UK context, the suitability of the intervention materials, procedures and outcome measures and collect data to inform a future definitive UK randomized controlled trial (RCT). <p></p>
<b>Methods/design</b> A pilot cluster RCT with associated preliminary economic analysis and embedded qualitative evaluation. The pilot trial will take place in two Scottish Health Board areas: Grampian and Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Twelve community pharmacies will be randomly assigned to intervention or usual care group. Each will recruit 12 customers seeking advice or treatment for intermittent allergic rhinitis. Pharmacy staff in intervention pharmacies will support recruited customers in developing strategies for setting and achieving goals that aim to avoid/minimize triggers for, and eliminate/minimize symptoms of allergic rhinitis. Customers recruited in non-intervention pharmacies will receive usual care. The co-primary outcome measures, selected to inform a sample size calculation for a future RCT, are: community pharmacy and customer recruitment and completion rates; and effect size of change in the validated mini-Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire between baseline, one-week and six-weeks post-intervention. Secondary outcome measures relate to changes in symptom severity, productivity, medication adherence and self-efficacy. Quantitative data about accrual, retention and economic measures, and qualitative data about participantsâ experiences during the trial will be collected to inform the future RCT.<P></P>
<b>Discussion</b> This work will lay the foundations for a definitive RCT of a community pharmacy-based âgoal-focusedâ self-management intervention for people with intermittent allergic rhinitis. Results of the pilot trial are expected to be available in April 2013
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