370 research outputs found
Communicating Mental Illness in the Black American Community
Human-human interactions are of central relevance for the success in professional and occupational environments, which also substantially influence quality of life. This is especially true in the case of individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA), who experience deficits in social cognition that often lead to social exclusion and unemployment. Despite good education and high motivation, individuals with HFA do not reach employment rates that are substantially higher than 50 %. This is an alarmingly high rate of unemployment considering that the United Nations have recently emphasized the inclusion of handicapped persons as a mandatory human right. To date, the specific needs of autistic persons with respect to their working environment are largely unexplored. It remains moreover an open question how support systems and activities, including newly developed communication devices for professional environments of individuals with HFA, should look like. The German health and social care systems are not adequately prepared for the proper support of this population. This leads us to suggest that supported employment programs should be developed for adults with HFA that specifically address their needs and requirements. Such programs should comprise (1) the adequate assessment of HFA, including a neuropsychological profile and an individual matching of persons' preferences with requirements of the working place, (2) on-the-job coaching activities that include systematic communication and interaction training, and (3) instruction of non-autistic peers, including colleagues and supervisors, about weaknesses and strengths of HFA
Diffuse Background Radiation
A new determination of the upper limit to the cosmic diffuse background
radiation, at ~110 nm, of 300 photons s-1 cm-2 sr-1 nm-1, is placed in the
context of diffuse background measurements across the entire electromagnetic
spectrum, including new optical, infrared, visible, and gamma-ray background
measurements. The possibility that observed excess diffuse visible radiation is
due to redshifted cosmological Lyman alpha recomination radiation is explored.
Also, a new standard of units for the display of spectra is advocated.Comment: Nine pages and one figur
The HI Mass Function and Velocity Width Function of Void Galaxies in the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey
We measure the HI mass function (HIMF) and velocity width function (WF)
across environments over a range of masses ,
and profile widths , using a catalog of
~7,300 HI-selected galaxies from the ALFALFA Survey, located in the region of
sky where ALFALFA and SDSS (Data Release 7) North overlap. We divide our galaxy
sample into those that reside in large-scale voids (void galaxies) and those
that live in denser regions (wall galaxies). We find the void HIMF to be well
fit by a Schechter function with normalization
, characteristic mass
, and low-mass-end slope
. Similarly, for wall galaxies, we find best-fitting
parameters ,
, and . We
conclude that void galaxies typically have slightly lower HI masses than their
non-void counterparts, which is in agreement with the dark matter halo mass
function shift in voids assuming a simple relationship between DM mass and HI
mass. We also find that the low-mass slope of the void HIMF is similar to that
of the wall HIMF suggesting that there is either no excess of low-mass galaxies
in voids or there is an abundance of intermediate HI mass galaxies. We fit a
modified Schechter function to the ALFALFA void WF and determine its
best-fitting parameters to be ,
, and high-width slope
. For wall galaxies, the WF parameters are:
, ,
and . Because of large uncertainties on
the void and wall width functions, we cannot conclude whether the WF is
dependent on the environment.Comment: Accepted for publication at MNRAS, 14 pages, 12 figure
The Power Spectrum of Galaxies in the Nearby Universe
We compute the power spectrum of galaxy density fluctuations in a recently
completed redshift survey of optically-selected galaxies in the southern
hemisphere (SSRS2). The amplitude and shape of the SSRS2 power spectrum are
consistent with results of the Center for Astrophysics redshift survey of the
northern hemisphere (CfA2), including the abrupt change of slope on a scale of
30-50Mpc/h; these results are reproducible for independent volumes of space and
variations are consistent with the errors estimated from mock surveys. Taken
together, the SSRS2 and CfA2 form a complete sample of 14,383 galaxies which
covers one-third of the sky. The power spectrum of this larger sample continues
to rise on scales up to ~ 200Mpc/h, with weak evidence for flattening on the
largest scales. The SSRS2+CfA2 power spectrum and the power spectrum
constraints implied by COBE are well-matched by an Omega*h ~ 0.2,
Omega+lambda_0=1 CDM model with minimal biasing of optically-selected galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Sept.
23, 1994. 10 pages uuencoded compressed postscript, including two figures.
JHU-9410200
Measurements of Free-Space Oscillating Pressures Near Propellers at Flight Mach Numbers to 0.72
In the course of a short flight program initiated to check the theory of Garrick and Watkins (NACA rep. 1198), a series of measurements at three stations were made of the oscillating pressures near a tapered-blade plan-form propeller and rectangular-blade plan form propeller at flight Mach numbers up to 0.72. In contradiction to the results for the propeller studied in NACA rep. 1198, the oscillating pressures in the plane ahead of the propeller were found to be higher than those immediately behind the propeller. Factors such as variation in torque and thrust distribution, since the blades of the present investigation were operating above their design forward speed, may account for this contradiction. The effect of blade plan form shows that a tapered-blade plan-form propeller will produce lower sound-pressure levels than a rectangular-blade plan-form propeller for the low blade-passage harmonics (the frequencies where structural considerations are important) and produce higher sound-pressure levels for the higher blade-passage harmonics (frequencies where passenger comfort is important)
Median Statistics, H_0, and the Accelerating Universe
(Abridged) We develop median statistics that provide powerful alternatives to
chi-squared likelihood methods and require fewer assumptions about the data.
Applying median statistics to Huchra's compilation of nearly all estimates of
the Hubble constant, we find a median value H_0=67 km/s/Mpc. Median statistics
assume only that the measurements are independent and free of systematic
errors. This estimate is arguably the best summary of current knowledge because
it uses all available data and, unlike other estimates, makes no assumption
about the distribution of measurement errors. The 95% range of purely
statistical errors is +/- 2 km/s/Mpc. The statistical precision of this result
leads us to analyze the range of possible systematic errors in the median,
which we estimate to be roughly +/- 5 km/s/Mpc (95% limits), dominating over
the statistical errors. A Bayesian median statistics treatment of high-redshift
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) apparent magnitude versus redshift data from Riess
et al. yields a posterior probability that the cosmological constant Lambda > 0
of 70 or 89%, depending on the prior information used. The posterior
probability of an open universe is about 47%. Analysis of the Perlmutter et al.
high-redshift SNe Ia data show the best-fit flat-Lambda model favored over the
best-fit Lambda = 0 open model by odds of 366:1; corresponding Riess et al.
odds are 3:1 (assuming prior odds of 1:1).Median statistics analyses of the SNe
Ia data do not rule out a time-variable Lambda model, and may even favor it
over a time-independent Lambda and a Lambda = 0 open model.Comment: Significant revisions include discussion of systematic errors in the
median of H_0. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, v548,
February 20, 2001 issue. 47 pages incl. figures and table
A Map of the Universe
We have produced a new conformal map of the universe illustrating recent
discoveries, ranging from Kuiper belt objects in the Solar system, to the
galaxies and quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This map projection,
based on the logarithm map of the complex plane, preserves shapes locally, and
yet is able to display the entire range of astronomical scales from the Earth's
neighborhood to the cosmic microwave background. The conformal nature of the
projection, preserving shapes locally, may be of particular use for analyzing
large scale structure. Prominent in the map is a Sloan Great Wall of galaxies
1.37 billion light years long, 80% longer than the Great Wall discovered by
Geller and Huchra and therefore the largest observed structure in the universe.Comment: Figure 8, and additional material accessible on the web at:
http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~mjuric/universe
Voids in the PSCz Survey and the Updated Zwicky Catalog
We describe an algorithm to detect voids in galaxy redshift surveys. The
method is based on the void finder algorithm of El-Ad & Piran. We apply a
series of tests to determine how accurately we are able to recover the volumes
of voids using our detection method. We simulate voids of different ellipticity
and find that if voids are approximately spherical, our algorithm will recover
100% of the volume of the void. The more elliptical the void, the smaller the
fraction of the volume we can recover. We insist that voids lie completely
within the survey. Voids close to the edge of the survey will therefore be
underestimated in volume. By considering a deeper sample, we estimate the
maximal sphere diameters are correct to within 30%.
We apply the algorithm to the Point Source Catalogue Survey (PSCz) and the
Updated Zwicky Catalog (UZC). The PSCz survey is an almost all-sky survey with
objects selected from the IRAS catalog. The UZC covers a smaller area of sky
but is optically selected and samples the structures more densely. We detect 35
voids in the PSCz and 19 voids in the UZC with diameter larger than
20h^{-1}Mpc. Using this minimum size threshold, voids have an average effective
diameter of 29.8+-3.5 h^{-1}Mpc (PSCz) and 29.2+-2.7 h^{-1}Mpc (UZC) and that
they are underdense regions with delta rho /rho values of -0.92+-0.03 (PSCz)
and -0.96+-0.01(UZC) respectively. Using this quite stringent threshold for
void definition, voids fill up to 40% of the volume of the universe.Comment: Accepted by ApJ to appear in the Feb 20th, 2002 issue. For a version
with better resolution of Figures 4 and 5 see
http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~fhoyle/papers.htm
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