47,312 research outputs found
Cosmological redshift distortion: deceleration, bias and density parameters from future redshift surveys of galaxies
The observed two-point correlation functions of galaxies in redshift space
become anisotropic due to the geometry of the universe as well as due to the
presence of the peculiar velocity field. On the basis of linear perturbation
theory, we expand the induced anisotropies of the correlation functions with
respect to the redshift , and obtain analytic formulae to infer the
deceleration parameter , the density parameter and the
derivative of the bias parameter at in terms of the
observable statistical quantities. The present method does not require any
assumption of the shape and amplitude of the underlying fluctuation spectrum,
and thus can be applied to future redshift surveys of galaxies including the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We also evaluate quantitatively the systematic error
in estimating the value of from a galaxy
redshift survey on the basis of a conventional estimator for which
neglects both the geometrical distortion effect and the time evolution of the
parameter . If the magnitude limit of the survey is as faint as 18.5
(in B-band) as in the case of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the systematic
error ranges between -20% and 10% depending on the cosmological parameters.
Although such systematic errors are smaller than the statistical errors in the
current surveys, they will dominate the expected statistical error for future
surveys.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figs, aastex, ApJ in press, replaced version includes
minor correction
Combined electronic nose and tongue for a flavour sensing system
We present a novel, smart sensing system developed for the flavour analysis of liquids. The system comprises both a so-called "electronic tongue" based on shear horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) sensors analysing the liquid phase and a so-called "electronic nose" based on chemFET sensors analysing the gaseous phase. Flavour is generally understood to be the overall experience from the combination of oral and nasal stimulation and is principally derived from a combination of the human senses of taste (gustation) and smell (olfaction). Thus, by combining two types of microsensors, an artificial flavour sensing system has been developed. Initial tests conducted with different liquid samples, i.e. water, orange juice and milk (of different fat content), resulted in 100% discrimination using principal components analysis; although it was found that there was little contribution from the electronic nose. Therefore further flavour experiments were designed to demonstrate the potential of the combined electronic nose/tongue flavour system. Consequently, experiments were conducted on low vapour pressure taste-biased solutions and high vapour pressure, smell-biased solutions. Only the combined flavour analysis system could achieve 100% discrimination between all the different liquids. We believe that this is the first report of a SAW-based analysis system that determines flavour through the combination of both liquid and headspace analysis
Luminescent solar concentrators. 2: Experimental and theoretical analysis of their possible efficiencies
Experimental techniques are developed to determine the applicability of a particular luminescing center
for use in a luminescent solar concentrator (LSC). The relevant steady-state characteristics of eighteen
common organic laser dyes are given. The relative spectral homogeneity of such dyes are shown to depend upon the surrounding material using narrowband laser excitation. We developed three independent techniques for measuring self-absorption rates; these are time-resolved emission, steady-state polarization anisotropy, and spectral convolution. Preliminary dye degradation and prototype efficiency measurements are included. Finally, we give simple relationships relating the efficiency and gain of an LSC to key spectroscopic parameters of its constituents
Is slower early growth beneficial for long-term cardiovascular health?
Background - Accelerated neonatal growth increases the later propensity to cardiovascular disease (CVD) in animals, whereas slower growth is thought to have a beneficial effect. To test this hypothesis in humans, we measured flow-mediated endothelium-dependent dilation (FMD) in a population subject to slower early growth and in healthy controls.Methods and Results - High-resolution vascular ultrasound was used to measure the change in brachial artery diameter in response to reactive hyperemia in adolescents age 13 to 16 years who were either part of a cohort born preterm and followed up prospectively (n = 216) or controls born at term ( n = 61). Greater weight gain or linear growth in the first 2 weeks postnatally was associated with lower FMD at adolescence ( regression coefficient, - 0.026-mm change in mean arterial diameter per 100-g increase in weight; 95% CI, - 0.040 to - 0.012 mm; P = 0.0003) independent of birthweight and potential confounding factors. Mean FMD in the half of the preterm population with the lowest rates of early growth was higher than in both the half with the greatest growth ( P = 0.001) and subjects born at term ( P = 0.03).Conclusions - FMD was 4% lower in adolescents with the highest compared with the lowest rate of weight gain in the first 2 weeks after birth, a substantial negative effect similar to that for insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus or smoking in adults. Our findings are consistent with the adverse effects of accelerated neonatal growth on long-term cardiovascular health and suggest that postnatal growth patterns could explain the previously reported association between birthweight and later CVD
The evolution of electron density and temperature distributions in the topside ionosphere during magnetic storms
The latitudinal distributions of electron density and temperature during geomagnetic storms in the mid-latitude topside ionosphere are observed to change in a manner than can be related to the evolution of ring current particle populations. The region of auroral precipitation is characterized by correlated increases in electron temperature and density. Equatorwards of this region, there is a broad belt of elevated electron temperatures and depressed electron densities which is usually much broader than any stable auroral red arc distinguishable from the ground, but which is nevertheless the same basic physical phenomenon. The changes of position of this belt can be related to prior bursts of geomagnetic activity and injection of ring current particles into the magnetosphere
Beyond capitalism and liberal democracy: on the relevance of GDH Coleâs sociological critique and alternative
This article argues for a return to the social thought of the often ignored early 20th-century English thinker GDH Cole. The authors contend that Cole combined a sociological critique of capitalism and liberal democracy with a well-developed alternative in his work on guild socialism bearing particular relevance to advanced capitalist societies. Both of these, with their focus on the limitations on âfree communal serviceâ in associations and the inability of capitalism to yield emancipation in either production or consumption, are relevant to social theorists looking to understand, critique and contribute to the subversion of neoliberalism. Therefore, the authors suggest that Coleâs associational sociology, and the invitation it provides to think of formations beyond capitalism and liberal democracy, is a timely and valuable resource which should be returned to
Wide Angle Redshift Distortions Revisited
We explore linear redshift distortions in wide angle surveys from the point
of view of symmetries. We show that the redshift space two-point correlation
function can be expanded into tripolar spherical harmonics of zero total
angular momentum . The
coefficients of the expansion are analogous to the 's of
the angular power spectrum, and express the anisotropy of the redshift space
correlation function. Moreover, only a handful of are
non-zero: the resulting formulae reveal a hidden simplicity comparable to
distant observer limit. The depend on spherical Bessel
moments of the power spectrum and . In the plane parallel
limit, the results of \cite{Kaiser1987} and \cite{Hamilton1993} are recovered.
The general formalism is used to derive useful new expressions. We present a
particularly simple trigonometric polynomial expansion, which is arguably the
most compact expression of wide angle redshift distortions. These formulae are
suitable to inversion due to the orthogonality of the basis functions. An
alternative Legendre polynomial expansion was obtained as well. This can be
shown to be equivalent to the results of \cite{SzalayEtal1998}. The simplicity
of the underlying theory will admit similar calculations for higher order
statistics as well.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, ApJL submitte
Measuring the temperature dependence of individual two-level systems by direct coherent control
We demonstrate a new method to directly manipulate the state of individual
two-level systems (TLS) in phase qubits. It allows one to characterize the
coherence properties of TLS using standard microwave pulse sequences, while the
qubit is used only for state readout. We apply this method to measure the
temperature dependence of TLS coherence for the first time. The energy
relaxation time is found to decrease quadratically with temperature for
the two TLS studied in this work, while their dephasing time measured in Ramsey
and spin-echo experiments is found to be limited at all temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
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