B-mode CMB Polarization from Patchy Screening during Reionization

B-modes in CMB polarization from patchy reionization arise from two effects: generation of polarization from scattering of quadrupole moments by reionization bubbles, and fluctuations in the screening of E-modes from recombination. The scattering contribution has been studied previously, but the screening contribution has not yet been calculated. We show that on scales smaller than the acoustic scale (l>300), the B-mode power from screening is larger than the B-mode power from scattering. The ratio approaches a constant ~2.5 below the damping scale (l>2000). On degree scales relevant for gravitational waves (l<100), screening B-modes have a white noise tail and are subdominant to the scattering effect. These results are robust to uncertainties in the modeling of patchy reionization.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; minor changes matching PRD published versio

Supersonic baryon-CDM velocities and CMB B-mode polarization

It has recently been shown that supersonic relative velocities between dark matter and baryonic matter can have a significant effect on formation of the first structures in the universe. If this effect is still non-negligible during the epoch of hydrogen reionization, it generates large-scale anisotropy in the free electron density, which gives rise to a CMB B-mode. We compute the B-mode power spectrum and find a characteristic shape with acoustic peaks at l ~ 200, 400, ... The amplitude of this signal is a free parameter which is related to the dependence of the ionization fraction on the relative baryon-CDM velocity during the epoch of reionization. However, we find that the B-mode signal is undetectably small for currently favored reionization models in which hydrogen is reionized promptly at z ~ 10, although constraints on this signal by future experiments may help constrain models in which partial reionization occurs at higher redshift, e.g. by accretion onto primordial black holes.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

CMB Constraints on Principal Components of the Inflaton Potential

We place functional constraints on the shape of the inflaton potential from the cosmic microwave background through a variant of the generalized slow roll approximation that allows large amplitude, rapidly changing deviations from scale-free conditions. Employing a principal component decomposition of the source function G'~3(V'/V)^2 - 2V''/V and keeping only those measured to better than 10% results in 5 nearly independent Gaussian constraints that maybe used to test any single-field inflationary model where such deviations are expected. The first component implies < 3% variations at the 100 Mpc scale. One component shows a 95% CL preference for deviations around the 300 Mpc scale at the ~10% level but the global significance is reduced considering the 5 components examined. This deviation also requires a change in the cold dark matter density which in a flat LCDM model is disfavored by current supernova and Hubble constant data and can be tested with future polarization or high multipole temperature data. Its impact resembles a local running of the tilt from multipoles 30-800 but is only marginally consistent with a constant running beyond this range. For this analysis, we have implemented a ~40x faster WMAP7 likelihood method which we have made publicly available.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.D. Optimized WMAP7 likelihood code and principal component functions of the GSR source function available at http://background.uchicago.edu/wmap_fast

A Tutorial on Bayesian Optimization of Expensive Cost Functions, with Application to Active User Modeling and Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning

We present a tutorial on Bayesian optimization, a method of finding the maximum of expensive cost functions. Bayesian optimization employs the Bayesian technique of setting a prior over the objective function and combining it with evidence to get a posterior function. This permits a utility-based selection of the next observation to make on the objective function, which must take into account both exploration (sampling from areas of high uncertainty) and exploitation (sampling areas likely to offer improvement over the current best observation). We also present two detailed extensions of Bayesian optimization, with experiments---active user modelling with preferences, and hierarchical reinforcement learning---and a discussion of the pros and cons of Bayesian optimization based on our experiences

Contained Messes

Contained Messes is an installation consisting of a range of sculptures or bundles that communicate my urgency for self-preservation. I put up massive boundaries when other people try to tell me about myself. When I think of setting boundaries, I think of building walls and I’ve built a lot of walls at Bard. The threat level determines the height and durability of the walls I build. When I started this project, I took a step back to look around and realized that I built myself a big house, an oyster shell if you will, suitable only for myself. Here, I have free reign to be my authentic self, I can be as messy, loud, sad, and profane as I want to without worrying about other people\u27s space or happiness. Everything within the walls belongs to me, I decide who is allowed to enter, and nothing festers or rots without me knowing about it. I don’t have this control when I am outside of my oyster shell. There have been times at Bard when I slipped and sliced open my belly, spilling out my guts in front of everyone I had come to know. Each time something bad happens outside, I return to my oyster shell to recollect myself and I garnish my wall with the remains. I have used elements from personal collections, obsessions, and vices to spew my own entrails that contain secrets, past lives, and residue of the one I am living now, elevating the lows and celebrating them; eating them, and puking them back out. The sculptures in Contained Messes largely consist of materials I have sourced from inside my oyster shell. Living with my three closest friends provided me with a unique accumulation of materials that convey the raw femininity we have cultivated. Candy and junk food wrappers, antidepressants, stimulants, and dead vapes can all be found in Contained Messes. I preferred the stories told by the plastic bags, balloons, lost trinkets, and beer caps that littered our floor the day after parties over the stories of my roommates recounting their night; they didn’t remind me how alienated I had become. The hairy lint roller sheets from our living room rug, our broken nails, and the pile of dirt speak to mortality, accumulation, and the passage of time. I use highly saturated colors to draw my audience in and the waste from my home to drive them away as if to say, “PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH OR FEED THE ANIMALS”. I believe the things we shed and discard can tell more about a person than the things we cherish and keep. I contained my sculptures in metal grids, nets, and nylons so that the contents would warp and protrude outward as if there was no room to breathe. These types of containers also appeal to my desire to be inaccessible but not invisible, like animals at the zoo. Exterminating or uprooting animals that live among us is analogous to how I was discarded merely for getting in someone else’s way. We assume that we are entitled to take up as much space as we want without considering how it affects life around us. Contained Messes condemns the notion that “the world is your oyster”, for it consists of 7 billion other people who also think the exact same thing. Instead, make the oyster your world, and it will grow with you

Understanding Core and Supportive Processes

This CNL project explored ways to improve communication and workflow, thus, decreasing the “physician referral to kidney transplant list” process by the Kidney Transplant Team. The existing processes takes nearly double the time of the national standard of ninety days. This is a time sensitive issue for those in need of a kidney transplant; therefore, our objectives include improved quality of care, improved patient safety by offering time sensitive lifesaving treatment options, staff satisfaction with clearly defined processes, and increase productivity. Beginning in January of 2015, the Lean Transformation Team began conducting a series of meetings using lean tools to guide the Kidney Transplant Team. These tools include process mapping, 5s, and PDSA. The tools helped identify improvement areas and problem solve new, more efficient processes, in this case, standardization of flow. Standardization of flow will then be implemented paralleled with optimizing roles. An evaluation process will be conducted by both the director and the team, and eventually LMHS through an audit. The project remains in its early stages due to a short delay by EMR implementation, but staff are encouraging and optimistic about the changes thus far. It is recommended the project be extended from nine months to twelve due to the timing of the EMR implementation. The projects expected completion is December 2015

Filmmaking as a Practice in Critical Theory

This multi-part project pulls together all my fields of research under the umbrella of my ultimate interest– agriculture and its future. The film portion focuses on regional and seasonal agriculture in Southern Germany near Lake Constance. It focuses on several families who do small-scale agricultural production utilizing various methods but ultimately touches on our current disconnect from our food systems and nature. The written portion found in this document focuses on filmmaking as a practice in critical theory, a tool to visualize what written theory cannot. Filming happened over a three-week period in Summer 2021for the portion shot in Germany. The research for the written portion on film involved watching all available films from Fredi M. Murer and Wim Wenders, choosing a few from each and detailing the involvement of theory. I was not a filmmaker when I began this project, so much of this endeavor has been trial and error with many changes being made to the scope and intention of the project over the last year. I see this as only the beginning and intend to make a longer version of this film with more interviews, including some here in the US, to show the dichotomy between capitalist systems and the growing disconnect from our food. The longer version will be more essayistic in style, with my voice being more apparent as I grow in my filmmaking abilities. For now, though, this version of the project is a culmination of all my areas of interest and doesn\u27t seek to prove anything, rather hopes to impact the way people think about film and agriculture

Accommodations, Inclusion, and Communication With Students With Disabilities in the Music Classroom

The purpose of this study was to learn how music educators create inclusivity in their classroom and how to better do that without potentially alienating the students with disabilities. For this study, inclusivity is defined as providing an equal opportunity for participation and education in the classroom. It is also to bring more awareness to disabilities and how they can and should be managed in the classroom. The goal for this study is to aid in informing educators on how to enable students with disabilities to be included without feeling alienated or having undue attention drawn to them. As the study is focused on strategies to work with students with disabilities, the subjects in this study were PreK-12 music educators. The music educators in this study had varied levels of teaching experience. The age of the subjects ranged from 21 to 69 years. The subjects answered questions on communication with and about students with disabilities, the inclusivity of their music classroom, and about their observation of their students’ feelings of alienation. These questions were intended to provide data on what is being done currently in the music classroom for and to students with disabilities Most of the music educator subjects stated that they work hard to include their students with disabilities and accommodate them. The music educators felt that they had the ability to communicate with and about their students with disabilities and were adequately educated to communicate with their students with disabilities and about their students with disabilities